The Broken Locket
by DarthRoden aka Carl
Summary: Arnold begins to see the real Helga in his dreams and starts to wonder about his arch nemesis. A love story by DarthRoden. Enjoy! Read and Review!
1. Part One

**Story Summary: **_Arnold starts to have beautiful dreams about Helga and begins to wonder more about the girl who claims to hate him; despite the fact he knows that she loves him. This story is post-movie confession and takes place about a few weeks after the events of the episode: _"The Journal."

**Disclaimer:** _I do not own Hey Arnold! It is owned by Nickelodeon and Viacom! The characters of this story are the creative genius of Master Craig Bartlett . . . a really cool guy!_

_**This story is dedicated to all fans of unrequited love, as well as all of its many victims.**_

**The Broken Locket**

By DarthRoden (a.k.a. Carl)

"_Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired." __–Robert Frost_

**Part One: Arnold's Dream**

_Arnold knew he was dreaming, because he'd had this particular dream once before._

_He was sitting in the front seat of an old-fashioned, double-decker, single engine biplane similar to the one his parents once owned, flying high over the white and pink clouds. Arnold was clad in a khaki safari outfit with a long, white scarf around his neck and a pair of pilots' goggles covering his half-lidded green eyes. His blonde hair, like the scarf, was flowing in the wind, yet for some odd reason the small blue cap, perched always at a right angle on top of his football-shaped head, stayed in place._

_Even though he was only nine years old and knew little about piloting an airplane in real life, in his dream world, Arnold flew it expertly across the orange and bluish sky, just above the few soft white and pink fluffy clouds nearby. He descended slowly, looking out at the landscape below him and smiled widely. The ground far below him was a checkerboard pattern of greens of all shades, mixed in with a few golden yellows, browns, and a few sparkling blues which were no doubt lakes and ponds, even a long, blue river. The whole landscape was cast lightly into a soft, beautiful yellow-orange by the setting sun off into the horizon._

_To his left, Arnold noticed a flock of Canadian geese flying next to the plane in their familiar v-shaped pattern. They honked, which Arnold could hear clearly, because the engine of the plane was somehow nothing more than a faint buzz, the wind was also only a slight breeze. He wobbled the plane slightly right and left and smiled slightly again when he saw the geese do the same in response._

_Above him, Arnold could see a few early stars begin to dimly shine through the light of the setting sun and off in the distance, he could see Venus shining very brightly against the pale blue heavens. _

_A thoughtful expression crossed Arnold's face and he sighed at the beauty all around him. This was a really great dream. "It's just so peaceful and beautiful up here," he said aloud to himself, in a very thoughtful, daydreaming sort-of way._

_Then something happened that Arnold did not expect._

_From behind him, he heard a soft, feminine voice sigh with the same type of profound thoughtfulness his own voice had expressed, and that same, gentle voice answered, "Yes, Arnold, it's very beautiful."_

_Arnold's eyes widened slightly, very much surprised that he wasn't alone in his dream. He turned around at the waist and looked at the back seat of the plane to see the last thing, or rather the last _person_; he would have ever expected to see in one of his pleasant dreams and blinked. _

_Helga Pataki, his childhood arch-nemesis, the girl who always made fun of him, picked on him, tortured him with pranks and called him insulting nicknames, was sitting there in the back seat. She was also dressed as he was, in a khaki safari outfit with a white scarf and a pair of pilots' goggles over her own large, blue eyes. Her long, soft blonde hair was sticking out freely from underneath a brown leather cap with her usual pink bow tied onto it, flowing gently in the breeze._

_Helga was looking out at the scenery as he had been moments before, a blissful smile on her face, her large eyes set in a dreamy expression of peace. Arnold blinked again, but she was still there, smiling in that genuine way he'd only rarely ever seen on her face before._

_Then Helga looked up at him, a totally peaceful look was on her face when her eyes met his. She smiled even wider, and her eyes took on a whole new brightness so lovely that Arnold was completely taken aback by them. Helga reached over with her left hand taking his right hand gently, and Arnold was again surprised to feel how soft and warm she was, even in a dream. She giggled softly, very girlishly and said, "It's even better, because you're here with me, my Arnold."_

It was this final shock that jolted Arnold awake. He sat up quickly in his bed sweating. A small, surprised sound escaped his lips, his eyes were wide. He gasped a little and knew he was fully awake.

Arnold looked at the clock on the shelf. It read 5:42 A.M. about an hour before he normally woke up. He laid his oblong shaped head back down on his pillow, his hands behind the back of his head. Looking up through his skylight at the predawn sky where a few stubborn stars still shown dimly in the light blue before the rising sunshine, he tried to recall the images from his dream, replaying them in his mind, and trying to figure out why Helga G. Pataki, of all people, had been in his dream.

He stayed like that for a long time.

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_Love, like a cough, cannot be hid." –George Herbert_


	2. Part Two

"_You not only can't explain love . . . actually, you can't even talk about it."_ —_Charlie Brown from _Peanuts_ by Charles Schultz_

**Part Two: The Bus Ride to School**

Later that morning, Arnold sat next to his best friend Gerald in their usual seat on the city bus on their way to school. Arnold sat next to the window today, looking out at the passing buildings and landmarks. His eyes held his usual unfocused and half-lidded gaze. His mind was miles and miles away, over the clouds, still in the dream from earlier, trying to keep it all in his head, trying to understand it.

Gerald, oblivious to all of this, was talking on and on about the upcoming summer vacation, which was now only one week away.

He was far from the only one. Nearly every kid on the bus was all smiles and cheer over the coming summer holiday. There were dozens of loud conversations going on about the various activities that would be done over the next few months.

"Man, oh man, Arnold!" Gerald smiled happily. "Summer vacation is almost here, at last! Just one more week away from three whole months of summer fun! We are going to do it all this summer, good buddy! Three months of baseball, swimming, sun, and nothing but fun! Fishing, the arcade, no teachers, no homework, absolutely nothing to distract a kid from just being a kid!" He elbowed Arnold, grinning, "Right, Arnold?"

"Huh? What?" Arnold said, blinking and then turning around towards Gerald. His train of thought cut off. "Oh, um—yeah, right, Gerald. Nothing but fun and sun," he answered, not really showing as much enthusiasm as Gerald would have thought about this particular topic.

Gerald frowned slightly. "Arnold, what is it with you this morning, buddy? You look like you're a million miles away, or something."

Before Arnold could answer, the bus stopped and some more kids began to climb on. "Watch your back! Move it! Outta my way, geek-bait, I'm walking here!" Those shouted words came from a familiar voice that Arnold knew only too well.

Helga Pataki boarded the bus, shoving, elbowing, and pushing her way through some smaller kids. All of the happy conversations were momentarily interrupted by the sudden change in the mood. Helga wore her usual pink dress with white shirt and pink bow placed on top of her head between two blonde pigtails, her face was set in her usual scowl.

Arnold watched her walk close by, his eyes never leaving her. He still had the image of the nice, warm, caring Helga from his dream, the one with the soft blue eyes and girlish laughter in her voice. Now he was looking at the Helga he saw every day, the nine-year-old terror of PS 118, the one with the hair trigger temper, scowling demeanor, sarcastic tongue and ever-ready fists.

As Helga walked by their seat, she paused in her tracks when she noticed Arnold staring at her, a strange look on his face she couldn't quite read. She scowled, her blue eyes narrowed and angry under her unibrow and asked, "What are _you_ looking at, _football-head_?" Arnold blinked, and then frowned. Helga called him a lot of nicknames, but "football-head" was among his least favorite ones.

Helga stomped off, Arnold watching her as she walked by, and sat down in her usual seat near the back of the bus next to her best friend and sidekick, Phoebe Heyerdahl.

"_Ohayou Gozaimazu,_ Helga," Phoebe said cheerfully, greeting Helga in chipper Japanese.

Helga sighed, "Phoebe, no Japanese today, I'm really not in the mood."

"Oh, okay, English then," Phoebe said happily giving a thumbs up.

Helga looked up at the seat where Arnold sat with Gerald. "I wonder what's up with _Hair-boy_ this morning."

Back over at their seats, Gerald looked over at Arnold. "What's gotten into you this morning, Arnold? Are you feeling okay, man?"

Arnold looked over at Gerald and said simply, "I'm fine, Gerald, I just—I had a really weird dream this morning."

"A dream? You mean that's why you're so distracted? What was it about?" Gerald asked, genuinely curious.

Arnold looked at Gerald and shook his head, "No way, you'd probably laugh at me if I told you."

"Arnold, when have I ever laughed at you over something silly like that?" Gerald asked seriously. Arnold just tilted his head toward Gerald and looked at him through half-lidded eyes. "Listen, man, you can tell me. I promise I'm not gonna laugh at you." Gerald said, raising his right hand and crossing over his heart with his left.

Arnold considered it a moment, and then said, "Okay, I'll tell you, but remember, you promised not to laugh"

"Trust me, Arnold," Gerald said to him nodding with a small smile on his face.

Arnold sighed and told Gerald, in almost a whisper, about his dream, about how Helga appeared in it, and how she acted nice and girlish, totally alien to the Helga he'd known his entire life . . .

"And that's when I woke up," Arnold said, finishing his story, looking down at his shoes. He looked up at over at his best friend and asked, "What do you think it means, Gerald?"

Gerald just sat there, looking at Arnold strangely, with sort-of a bemused look on his face.

"Um, Gerald?"

Then Gerald's chest suddenly began to heave, a small noise escaped through his nose and mouth, followed by some soft giggles, then full blown laughter. Arnold scowled at his best friend in annoyance. "I knew you'd laugh."

At this point, Gerald was doubled over in the seat with even more laughter. Arnold looked up and noticed that many of the small conversations on the bus had suddenly ceased as kids began to look at them strangely.

_Great, now everyone on the bus is looking at us._ Arnold thought to himself.Then Arnold sat up, as if jolted by his last thought._ Wait a minute? Everyone! _He turned to look in the back and to his horror; Helga and Phoebe were indeed among those looking at them strangely. The last thing Arnold wanted was for Helga G. Pataki to know that he'd had a dream about her.

Then Arnold noticed Sid and Stinky walking over to where they sat.

"Hey Gerald, what's so gal-danged funny?" Stinky asked in his nasal country accent.

"Yeah, Gerald," Sid asked, curiously. "What's going on?"

Gerald finally got control of his laughing fit and looked over at Arnold, who shot him a very serious look that plainly said, _Gerald, don't you dare!_

"Oh, um—I was just telling Arnold about, uh—s-something my sister Timberly did this morning," Gerald lied quickly. "Yeah, that's it. That Timberly, what a ball of fire."

Both of the boys seemed utterly uninterested in the exploits of a four-year-old girl and went back to their seats near the front. All of the kids looking at them quickly went back to their previous conversations. Arnold looked back and noticed Helga still looking at him strangely. She scowled at him suddenly, and then quickly looked away.

_Whew, that was too close,_ Arnold thought, as he turned back around and looked at his best friend annoyed.

"Um, sorry about that man, but you have to admit, that it's kind-of funny," Gerald said a little more quietly in case someone else was listening in. "I mean,_ you_ having a dream about Helga G. Pataki of all people, and she was actually _nice_." Gerald said that as if he couldn't quite envision that thought for himself.

"I know. It's just so weird," Arnold said, looking down again for a moment. "I just don't understand why I would have a dream like that about Helga. What do you think, Gerald?"

"Personally, I think you should lay off your grandma's cooking before you go to bed, it'll give you nightmares." Gerald joked.

"Gerald," Arnold said, stressing his name in annoyance. Then Arnold looked down and said, "Still, it wasn't a bad dream at all. Helga didn't act like she usually does; she was really—well, sort-of nice to be around."

"Well, Arnold, that should have tipped you off that the whole thing was a dream," Gerald said, humorously. Arnold actually smiled slightly at that, but as he thought about it, Arnold remembered that he _knew_ he'd been dreaming before his unexpected encounter with Helga.

"It was just so strange, seeing her like that," Arnold said, almost to himself. "She seemed so happy and nice in my dream. Just so different, so . . ." Arnold trailed off as he remembered how soft and beautiful Helga looked in his dream, with her soft blonde hair flowing wildly in the wind and her large blue eyes looking at him with so much warmth. He shook his head and sighed, "I don't know, just so . . . different." Somehow the word "different" didn't seem quite adequate enough, but it was the best word Arnold's mind could come up with at the time.

Gerald looked at his friend strangely and shook his head. "Arnold, my man, I'm worried about you, buddy."

"What do you mean?" Arnold asked curiously.

"Well, I'd worry about any guy who had Helga G. Pataki as his dream girl," Gerald said, smiling.

Arnold suddenly felt very defensive, "Oh, come on Gerald, I never said she was my dream girl!"

Gerald smiled, as he continued to enjoy baiting his best friend, "Whatever you say, Arnold."

Arnold sighed, as if he was tired, knowing Gerald would probably tease him about this until the end of the school year and possibly for much of the summer. Still, even as the bus pulled up to the front of PS 118, his mind was still where his dream had been, up in the clouds, far, far away.

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_In love the paradox occurs that two beings become one and yet remain two." –Eric Fromm_


	3. Part Three

"_Gratitude looks to the past and love to the present . . ."__–C. S. Lewis_

**Part Three: The Kickball Day Announcement**

Arnold and Gerald hurried to class through a hallway packed with happy, smiling kids. They walked into Mr. Simmons' fourth grade classroom to see Mr. Simmons smiling happily as he erased something that looked a lot like a crude, cartoonish figure of himself, with crossed eyes and exaggerated facial features, saying something which had already been erased. Harold, Sid and Stinky could be heard near the back of the classroom, the latter two snickering into their hands, while Harold himself was laughing out loud.

Arnold took his seat. Gerald sat in the desk next to his in the front row just as Helga, with Phoebe by her side, entered the classroom, just beating out the tardy bell. Phoebe walked between their desks, nodding and smiling at Arnold and turning her head toward Gerald, also smiling and giving him a shy little wave. Gerald grinned and made a pistol with his finger, winking at her. Helga marched just behind her, turning her head toward Arnold, who looked up and smiled at her. She scowled at him, baring her teeth menacingly, and continued to stomp her way back to her usual desk in the back row, in the aisle behind Arnold. She flopped heavily into her seat.

Mr. Simmons closed the door as the last bell rang, and then turned to his students, a cheerful smile on his face, his eyes shining brightly. "Hello, class!" Mr. Simmons said to them in his usual morning greeting, stretching out the "hello" part as he always did. This was met with an enthusiastic: "Hello, Mr. Simmons" by Eugene and Sheena, a friendly smile and nod from Arnold, Phoebe and Lila, a few groans (mostly by Harold) and a slightly audible "Criminy," from Helga, which Arnold heard quite clearly. Everyone else was silent.

"Well, class, today is the last week of the school year . . ." the teacher began, and only managed to get that far before the entire classroom erupted into cheers. Helga didn't smile for some reason.

Mr. Simmons continued on, smiling. "Okay, settle down, boys and girls, listening ears. Today we will not be having the usual schoolwork, because today is the annual P.S. 118 tradition known as Kickball Day in which our class will be taking part just before the lunchtime period—um, yes, Rhonda?"

Rhonda's hand was in the air, which upon being addressed; she lowered it promptly and asked, snootily, "Do we all _have_ to be in this kickball game, because today I am wearing my brand new, one of a kind, red Caprini platforms. I don't want to get them all dirty kicking around a ball for two hours"

"Yeah, Mr. Simmons," Helga said sarcastically from her nearby seat. "We wouldn't want little Miss Rhonda-Lloyd to get herself all dirty. I mean, criminy, her nose is so high in the air, if she had to take a shower, she'd probably drown." This drew a number of muffled snickers, and not so muffled giggles, from everyone within earshot. Arnold actually smiled slightly, even though he normally didn't approve of talking about someone like that. Gerald had his face in his arms on his desk, snickering loudly into them. Rhonda, for her part, shot Helga a dirty look and turned away, her nose in the air.

Mr. Simmons merely answered, his smiles never wavering, "Okay, settle down everyone. Well Rhonda, attendance in the Kickball Day activity is not mandatory, so anyone wishing to sit out may do so and cheer on your classmates."

Aside from Rhonda, only Lila and Brainy appeared to want out. Neither of them was very athletic.

"However, due to Kickball Day, all the normal class work today has been cancelled . . ." This drew more cheers, and this time Helga joined in, smiling slightly, as if that was the best news she'd heard all day. "Instead, to pass the time, I am going to assign some interesting and _special_ projects," Mr. Simmons added, using his fingers to make quotation marks when he said "special" as he almost always did.

Arnold briefly wondered what sort-of "special" projects they would be, when he heard the sound of a sheet of paper being torn behind him. He flinched slightly, knowing full well what the sound meant. Helga was getting ready to shoot spit wads at him . . . again.

He sighed heavily. _Just one more week to go_, he told himself as the first spit wad hit him right behind the left ear, leaving a sticky feeling where it hit. Arnold scowled, turning to look at her, knowing what would happen next. Helga looked up at him, pretending to not know what was happening, though not bothering to hide the scowl of annoyance on her face, and asked "What?"

Arnold turned back around and then he heard the sound of another scrap of paper being torn. He sighed again and tried to pay attention to Mr. Simmons telling the class about their first activity. Instead he looked over toward the open window and the blue sky and white fluffy-looking clouds outside.

Again, the dream from last night went through Arnold's mind. The vision of the Helga from his dream stood out in his mind. The softer, kinder Helga, a complete opposite of the girl he saw every day, the girl who'd picked on and bullied him his whole life, who called him names, who made his life miserable . . .

And yet, the girl who, for some strange reason he didn't understand, loved him deep down.

No matter how many times Arnold tried to shove the memory from that night on the balcony of the Future Tech Industries building, into the back of his football-shaped head, it came back to him somehow, always when he least expected it. To say that Arnold had not been ready for the knowledge that Helga Pataki loved him would be an understatement. Her confession had been a complete and total surprise to him—as was the long, deep kiss she'd given him in the heat of the moment.

Later on, after saving the neighborhood from the wrecking ball, and from that evil industrialist Sheck, both of them sort-of agreed that the whole thing never happened. It had all been too much, too soon for both of them.

Arnold was just starting to wonder if that night had anything to do with his dream, when another spit wad hit him in the back of the neck, making a small, wet-sounding splat. He sighed and hoped that fourth period would get there soon.

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides." –David Viscott_


	4. Part Four

"_There is only one kind of love, but there are a thousand different versions."_ —_La Rachefoucould_

**Part Four: Admiration and Bravery**

The bell for fourth period rang about two hours and approximately thirty-six spit wads later. Mr. Simmons' class went out onto the playground behind the school building where another class was waiting for them. Rhonda, Lila and Brainy all filed out to sit nearby to cheer on their classmates. Phoebe joined them, not really being the athletic type either, choosing instead to be the scorekeeper.

Helga pushed, shoved, and elbowed her way past everyone and stood before her remaining classmates.

"Okay people, listen up, cause I'm only going to say this once," Helga announced, taking full charge of the team. She began to point at the kids and give out the lineup, "I'm first, Stink-o, you're second, Sheena's third, Gerald-o's fourth, Football-head's fifth, Pink-boy's sixth, Curly, you're seventh, Iggy's eighth, and Sid, you're last."

"I'm last to kick! Boy howdy, that's totally unfair! Why do I have to go last? Who died and put you in charge, Helga?" Sid asked her in his usual whinny voice, totally irate.

Helga faced Sid, who promptly flinched nervously as Helga stood before him, scowling down at him in annoyance, shaking her left fist under his nose. "_You_, if you don't shut up and quit complaining,_ monkey-boy_!"

She smiled to herself as Sid closed his mouth and nodded quickly, holding his hands out defensively. "Y-yeah sure, Helga, whatever you say." With that he backed off away from the taller girl.

Arnold frowned slightly as he watched Helga bully everybody around into doing things her way. Deep down though, despite that, he did approve of the way she took charge and got everyone organized, just like she did when they played baseball at Gerald Field. He just disapproved of the way she treated everyone, believing that there was always a better way than pushing them around.

Mr. Simmons' fourth grade class would be playing kickball against Mr. Frank's sixth grade class, which was made up of a number of tough-looking older kids, most of whom looked really slow, but powerful. The kid in charge was a large brute nicknamed Belch, because of his tendency to burp very loudly and on command. He glared menacingly at the fourth graders.

"Man, Arnold," Gerald said, whispering to him. "I can't believe they let 'Belch the Bruiser' back in school. I thought for sure they'd expelled him after what he did."

Arnold nodded, "I know." Belch had been sent to Juvenile Hall for six months for purposely breaking a third grader's arms in a fight. He was the sort-of bully who would have made Wolfgang and Tourvalt look like saints. He was big enough to make Big Patty and Harold look as thin as Sid.

Arnold watched, with a great deal of apprehension, as Helga marched over to Belch to call for the coin toss to decide who would kick first. She stood before the large bully, who was a good head taller than her, scowling up at him. If she was at all intimidated by the bully in front of her, she did not show it outwardly, but Arnold knew that deep down, Helga had to be nervous. He admired the fact that she could hide her anxiety so well.

_Sometimes there seems to be a lot more to Helga than most people really take the time to notice,_ Arnold thought to himself, smiling slightly. _There are times when she can be really cool . . . well, when she isn't bossing people around that is._ He amended his thoughts at the last moment.

"Hey Arnold! Hello in there! Anyone home in there, man?" Gerald asked, waving a hand in front of Arnold's face.

"Huh? Oh sorry, Gerald." Arnold said, shaking his head and apologizing.

Gerald shook his head, "Man, Arnold, don't space out on us now, were going to need you to beat these guys." He smiled and turned back to the coin toss. Arnold did also, smiling a bit in anticipation of a good game of kickball. The weather was perfect for it, despite the few dark clouds in the distance over the buildings.

Mr. Simmons, who was to play referee for the game, tossed a quarter into the air. Arnold heard Belch's gruff voice call "heads." When the quarter hit the ground, both Belch and Helga looked down and Helga smirked in triumph. Belch looked up crossly and frowned.

"Tails it is!" Mr. Simmons called out. "Helga's team goes first."

With that the Kickball Day game was officially under way. Both teams were poised to play and have fun enjoying the next hour free of class work. It was a bright, sunny day with only a few dark clouds on the horizon, and they were outdoors enjoying a nice friendly game of kickball.

What they did not know then was that twenty minutes into that "nice friendly game" all hell would break loose.

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_Love is the flower you've got to let grow." -John Lennon_


	5. Part Five

"_Everything we do in life is based on fear, especially love."_ _Mel Brooks_

**Part Five: The Kickball Incident**

The score twenty minutes later was two to one, the fourth grade team down by one point, and it was their second turn to kick.

Helga was the only one to kick a perfect home run kick over the fence to score the first point of the game. After that, Stinky, Sheena and Harold (whom Helga decided to let kick all of a sudden, knowing he was going to be out, thus saving the other good kickers on the team for the next turn at the plate) were all tagged out by the sixth graders, who threw the ball extra hard at the smaller kids. When it was the sixth grader's turn, they scored two runs before they were tagged for their third out by Gerald, who'd nailed a large sixth grade boy so hard, the ball bounced off of the boy's hip and hit Eugene square in the face, practically knocking him out cold. Mr. Simmons and the fourth graders all gathered around Eugene who sat up and, in a dazed voice, said "I'm okay" just before he passed out. Mr. Simmons and Sheena then helped carry Eugene to the nurse's office.

That last action unfortunately left the kickball game without teacher supervision, a fact which would unknowingly lead to a very unfortunate incident in just a few moments.

"Okay, _Tall-Hair-Boy_, you're up," Helga said to Gerald, who was ready to finally kick the ball. Gerald stepped up to the plate as Belch rolled the ball for the kick. Gerald kicked the ball through the kids stationed around second and third base and ran quickly for a double. The fourth graders cheered.

"All right, Gerald!" Arnold shouted to his best friend, pumping his fist into the air, while Gerald bowed like an actor who just gave a good performance. He looked over at Phoebe on the sidelines. The short girl cheered and blushed when she saw him give her a smile and make a pistol with his right hand at her.

"Well, football-head, it's your turn," Helga said, in an almost good-natured way. "And try not to trip over the ball," she added mockingly, chuckling. Arnold sighed, shaking his football-shaped head at Helga's teasing attitude toward him.

"Come-on Arnold!" yelled Sid from behind. The others began to cheer him on too . . . though he heard Helga say, in the thick of it, "Don't strike out, _Arnold-o_!" He rolled his eyes and stepped up to the plate, a determined look on his face.

Belch rolled the ball to him and he kicked it with all his might. The ball flew from Arnold's foot and . . .

WHAM!

It hit Belch right in the face harder than Eugene had been hit, knocking the larger kid off his feet and on his back with a mighty thud.

Arnold and the fourth graders stood there in mute shock at the sight of the tough bully lying on the ground surrounded by his team and fellow sixth graders. The silence was broken by Helga, who grinned almost amused and said, "Criminy, _Hair-boy_, you're a bigger jinx than Eugene sometimes."

Arnold barely heard the comment because he was feeling guilt and fear in his stomach at what had happened. He was really anxious wondering if the older boy was hurt. Arnold hated to cause others' pain.

Suddenly, Belch sat up and shouted, clearly angry, "Who did that?!" One of the sixth graders pointed Arnold out. Even from where he was standing, Arnold could clearly see the anger on the larger kid's face, which was now red from where the kickball had hit him. Red eyes were now staring a hole through him.

Belch stood up and quickly marched over to Arnold, who gulped and began to step backwards. The whole playground was chanting, "Fight! Fight! Fight!" He backed up until his back was against the red brick wall of the school building. A very wide shadow suddenly eclipsed Arnold's short, thin frame.

Arnold began to talk really fast, in an effort to reason with the former Juvenile Hall inmate, who was at least a foot taller than him and had arms almost as wide as his head. "Listen, Belch, I'm sorry! My foot must have skimmed the ball! It was an accident!"

Belch scowled down at him, his dark beady eyes narrowed in anger and humiliation, his red face making him look even more menacing. "Oh, you're gonna have an accident, shrimp!" he said in a dangerous tone that made even the onlookers cringe. He pounded his large, ham-sized right fist into his other hand, making a sound like raw meat slapping onto a counter.

Arnold shut his eyes tightly, ready for the inevitable, hoping that Belch would make it quick at least. He knew he was only seconds away from the pounding of his life, and possibly waking up in the hospital in a full body cast . . . When he got a last minute reprieve, from the most unlikely of places.

Helga jumped in front of Arnold, putting herself between him and the big goon, holding her arms out protectively. "Don't you_ dare _lay a hand on him!" Helga shouted at Belch, who stopped and blinked, clearly surprised.

He was not the only one. Everyone around them gasped out of shock at what Helga was doing. Phoebe, watching from the sidelines, was suddenly very concerned for her, as well as for Arnold. Gerald stood nearby, blinking, his mouth open as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

As soon as he heard those words, and recognizing with a start who'd uttered them, Arnold quickly opened his eyes and saw Helga standing between him and the bully, looking up at his face with a fierce determination. "Helga?" He asked, in a surprised and confused voice.

"Why not?" Belch asked, scowling down at the skinny little fourth grade girl who dared get in his way.

Suddenly, Helga blinked as she realized what she'd just done. She'd been watching the whole thing happen in mute horror till the bully raised his fist at Arnold. She then acted purely on instinct to protect the one she loved from being beaten up. In the process, she'd not only put herself at great physical risk, but also in danger of revealing her most intimately guarded secret to the whole playground.

Thinking quickly, she shook her head and began to cover her tracks. "W-well, because he already apologized, and I just want to play kickball. So why don't you just waddle back over to the pitcher's area and let's get back to playing the game." She scowled, trying not to show the fact that she was sweating in nervousness, hoping that the bully would back down, and that everyone didn't suspect her secret.

However, Belch was not about to let the fourth grader get away with hitting him like that without a pounding. Scowling, he said, still very angry, "Outta my way, _pigtails_, or you're gonna get knocked over!"

Helga didn't move an inch, but her eyes narrowed, and she actually took a step forward, showing absolutely no outward sign of intimidation at the overpowering force before her. Nobody threatened Helga G. Pataki! Nobody!

"Listen, pal, Arnold-o already apologized to you," she told him, her tone making it absolutely clear that she wouldn't have done so in his place. She continued, scowling up into the bully's face, "I mean, criminy, how big a loser are you anyway?"

Everyone gasped in shock, all of them waiting anxiously to see what would happen next.

Belch became even more ticked off by this girl with the pink bow and the blonde pigtails who'd just insulted him. "I said outta my way, _Blondie_!" He told her, taking a step toward her, closing the distance between them, trying to scare her off.

It didn't work. Instead, Helga smirked and said, sarcastically, "Humph, you said that already and I wasn't too impressed the first time either, _bucko_!"

A very nasty look crossed Belch's face just then. He shoved Helga aside hard, knocking her to the pavement. Helga let out a sharp, surprised yelp as she hit the ground. She felt pain in her right knee, knowing that it was scraped.

The bully then turned on her, looking down at her with a look of pure malice on his red face. He stood over her, smiling a terribly ugly smile. "Someone needs to teach you a lesson, _pigtails_!"

Up until that moment, Arnold had been standing there, in stunned silence, like everyone else, watching Helga confront a sixth grade bully twice her size, and with a far worse reputation than she held as a bully. Even more surprising to him was the fact that she'd done it to save him from being beaten up. His oblong-shaped brain had still been trying to process that fact when Belch angrily shoved Helga to the ground.

Suddenly, something in Arnold snapped. He became angrier than he'd ever felt before. Hitting a girl, even one as tough as Helga, was the act of a genuine lowlife in Arnold's way of looking at things. His eyes narrowed. Acting entirely on impulse he ran into Belch, his teeth bore with as much menace as he was capable of, and knocked him down . . . again. This time, on purpose.

"_LEAVE HER ALONE, YOU BIG CREEP!"_ Arnold heard himself shout, in a voice so hoarse, it surprised even him.

Everyone on the playground blinked at this. Arnold fighting?! It was not something many of his classmates saw every day, if at all.

Helga looked up at Arnold, her knight in shining armor, her football-headed guardian angel, coming to her rescue in shocked surprise like everyone else. _He—He's standing up to that bully?! For me?! _She thought as she looked at his scowling face, which was focused on the fore-mentioned "Big Creep" who was now recovering from his shock and getting up slowly.

"_YOU LITTLE PUNK!"_ Belch shouted as he grabbed Arnold by the shirt and jacked him up against the brick wall hard enough to rattle his teeth.

"_ARNOLD!"_ Helga shouted, concern and fear clear in her voice, the same etched on her face. Her worried cry was not heard over the shouts and cries of the kids who were now recovering from their shock and outrage to yell at Belch.

Arnold swung his fists wildly at the big kid. Unfortunately, his arms were way too short to actually connect with anything but air. Belch lifted him up higher by his sweater, and closed up his large right fist, ready to pummel Arnold to within an inch of his young life.

"Next time, work on that attitude of yours, _shrimp_!" He said, smiling in triumph as he pulled back a fist large enough to crack Arnold's skull.

Seeing this, Helga felt her anger and resolve to protect her beloved return to her. Angry tears filled her eyes at the thought of that Neanderthal touching a hair on her true love's football-shaped head. _"Old Betsy,"_ her ever-ready-left fist, curled up tightly. Then, she actually smiled. Pushing her down had given Helga the perfect excuse to retaliate without arousing suspicion about her feelings for Arnold.

_Thanks pal, _she thought, smiling wickedly now.

Helga jumped up quickly and grabbed Belch by his fist, and using an inner strength that belied her thin, dainty frame, spun the bully around. The shocked sixth grader dropped Arnold to the pavement, and barely had time to realize what had happened when Helga drew back _"Old Betsy"_ and, with all her might, swung and connected her fist with the big kid's broad nose.

There was an audible crack which could be heard all over the school yard. It was the sickening sound of two upper teeth, a nose, and a knuckle bone all cracking at the same time. The whole playground winced or cringed at it. Belch fell onto the pavement on his back hard, for a third time, screaming up at the sky, holding his mouth and nose, which were both bleeding profusely.

Helga fell to her banged up knees, holding her left fist with her other hand; her face went very pale as a sharp pain shot up her arm. She shut her eyes, feeling them tear up because of the pain. Yet, despite that, a small, triumphant smile crossed her face.

There was a silence among the onlookers just then, which Curly abruptly ended by saying, in a totally amazed voice, "Wow, one punch!"

Arnold, his back against the red-bricked wall, had witnessed the whole thing in utter horror. His mind was just now accepting the fact that he was not about to be beaten up, when he felt someone help him up by the left arm. It was Gerald, who was looking at him, concerned.

"Arnold! Man, are you all right?" Gerald asked worried for his best friend.

"Y-yeah, Gerald," Arnold said slowly, winded and visibly shaking as he stood. "I-I'm fine."_ Thanks to Helga, _he thought to himself amazed, somehow not able to say the words aloud just then.

Arnold quickly went over to Helga's side and knelt down in front of her, a worried look on his face. She was visibly shaking and her left hand was bleeding, as well as her scraped knees. "Helga?"

Helga looked up and locked her painfully teary eyes with him. The intensity of that look made Arnold blink. "A-Arnold?"

Both of them were just about to utter the words: "Are you all right" at the same instant, when a voice of adult authority suddenly boomed in. "What's going on here?!"

They both blinked, their eye connection abruptly broken as they both looked over to see Principal Wartz walking toward them, frowning. Mr. Simmons and a couple of teachers were right behind him, followed by a very worried Phoebe, who'd gone for help earlier. Upon seeing Helga, she gasped in shock.

Several students began to tell the principal at once what happened. All the while, Belch continued to scream up into the sky, shouting through his swollen lip, "Thee brok my nothe! It Hurths!" It was obvious he was in terrible pain. Two of the teachers began to help lead him inside to the nurse's office. He continued to groan and cry the whole way there.

"Okay, everyone, game's over! Back to your classes at once!" Wartz shouted. This caused several groans from the students, but they complied none-the-less. Sid could be heard saying, though not too loudly, "Man, I didn't even get a turn!"

Principal Warts then turned to Helga, who was being helped to her feet by Arnold and Phoebe.

"Okay, Miss Pataki, I told you about fighting the last time you were in my office. You're in big trouble this time, young lady," he told her.

"Oh, I'm so worried," Helga muttered in obvious sarcasm, which did not improve Wartz's mood.

"Please, Principal Wartz," Arnold said, coming to Helga's defense. "It wasn't Helga's fault! She didn't start that fight . . ."

"That's enough, young man," Principal Wartz said, making it clear he would hear no more on the subject.

"But sir," Arnold said, trying again.

But this time, Helga whispered just loud enough for him to hear it, "Save it, Arnold."

Arnold looked at her and actually saw a ghost of a smile cross her face before Principal Wartz led her away to his office, leaving Arnold feeling guilty about the whole thing and angry that Helga would be punished unjustly. He stood there, Gerald and Phoebe standing beside him, looking on as Helga was led away, still holding her bruised hand. Arnold and Phoebe both had worried looks on their face, while Gerald just shook his head in amazed disbelief.

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly." Sam Keen_


	6. Part Six

"_I am two fools, I know, for loving, and for saying so in whining poetry."__ Donne_

**Part Six: Helga's Broken Locket**

Helga sat alone on the wooden chair in the middle of the Principal's office, in front of the large wooden desk. The whole thing was meant to be intimidating to the juveniles brought before the head of the school, but Helga had been here enough times to be particularly fazed by any of it.

Principal Wartz himself went off to fetch the school nurse, who was no doubt at that very moment attending to Belch's broken nose. She'd heard him screaming all the way down the hallway, yelling in pain and crying loudly like an overgrown baby. A small part of Helga deep down actually felt sorry for the bully, and even a little bit guilty for breaking his nose.

Then Helga frowned, shoving that thought to the back of her mind. _That jerk had it coming,_ she told herself, remembering that the big oaf not only shoved her into the concrete and scraped her knees, he'd also tried to cave Arnold's face in.

Helga looked down and frowned to herself, realizing what a mess she looked like. Both of her knees were scraped and bleeding, but not too badly. The front of her pink jumper and white t-shirt was torn in several tiny places. Worst of all, her left hand was throbbing in pain. Two of her knuckles were cut and bleeding, and looked as if they would be awfully bruised later on.

_Old Betsy has definitely seen better days,_ Helga thought idly, looking at her fist.

Now here she was, in the Principal's office, waiting for Wartz to return and give her one of his speeches about fighting, and maybe giving her detention for the remainder of the school year. All because of some jerk Arnold accidentally hit with a kickball.

Thinking about Arnold brought back the memory of him actually shoving the big goon down before the overgrown jerk could hit her again, and yelling at the bully to leave her alone, anger on his oblong face. "Arnold actually fought to save me," Helga said herself aloud in disbelief. She remembered the way he'd looked at her when she was holding her wounded fist. He'd actually looked just as worried for her as she had been for him.

Helga smiled then, still in disbelief, but pleased none-the-less. "This is unbelievable!" She said excitedly to herself. "Arnold came to my rescue! Oh, my football-headed knight in shining armor! Rushing to my rescue and saving me from the dastardly brute that would have harmed me!"

She stood to her feet, her knees aching, but she didn't notice just then, being too involved in her romantic thoughts of Arnold defending her, and for standing up for her the way she'd stood up for him. Helga reached inside her pink jumper for her golden, heart-shaped locket with Arnold's smiling picture in it, which Helga always kept next to her heart. "Oh, my love! My dar- OW!"

She flinched from a sharp pain as she pulled her right hand out of her dress, holding the locket. Helga looked down at it to see her finger bleeding from a small cut. She also saw the reason for it. The glass which displayed Arnold's picture was distorted by a single, thin crack which cut down the middle of the picture. A small drop of her blood seeped into the crack, making it more visible.

"_Criminy_!" Helga said angrily to herself. "It must have cracked when I hit the ground on my stomach! That big jerk! I hope he has to have splints for that large nose of his!"

Suddenly, the sound of adult voices outside and the doorknob turning made her sit back down abruptly. She shoved the locket back inside her dress just before the door opened and Principal Wartz appeared, followed closely by Sheena's Aunt Shelly, who was also the school nurse, holding a white First Aid kit.

"Oh, you poor dear!" Nurse Shelly exclaimed upon seeing Helga's condition. She knelt over and took Helga's hand, examining it and applying bandages. "Here, this won't hurt a bit," she assured Helga as she did her job.

"Miss Pataki," Principal Wartz began, looking sternly at Helga, who rolled her eyes, knowing full well the routine that would be coming. "This is the seventh time this year you've been in this office for hitting another student. I would have thought for sure that last time with Dr. Bliss would have cured you of your repeated acts of juvenile delinquency. I don't have to remind you . . . once again . . . that fighting on the school grounds is a serious violation of school policy, do I?"

"Hey, I didn't start that fight!" Helga said, raising her voice in frustration. "That big goon hit me first! All I did was finish it!"

"Don't raise your voice to me in this office, young lady," Principal Wartz said to her sternly. "As for your punishment, as much as I would like to do it, suspension with so little time left in the school year would be a waste of time, as would detention. So I have no other choice but to call your parents and inform them of your behavior."

"Big whoop," Helga said, under her breath, knowing full well that neither Bob, nor Miriam, was liable to care . . . especially considering the news they got that morning.

Principal Wartz continued, pacing the room. "You know, Miss Pataki, I have to say that I am really disappointed with your behavior. Your sister, Olga Pataki, was one of this school's most prized students." He indicated the framed picture on the wall of a much younger Olga wearing blue graduation robes and shaking hands with a smiling, and younger Principal Wartz that still had hair. "A perfect record, head of every club in school, highest grades in the school district . . ."

Helga scowled. This was definitely not something she wanted to hear right now. She shut it all out by thinking again of Arnold's weird behavior, and him saving her on the playground. All the while Wartz continued to talk glowingly about her older sister's accomplishments, and reprimanding her for her own behavior.

She forgot all about her broken locket for the time being.

_**To Be Continued . . . . .**_

"_You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly." Sam Keen_


	7. Part Seven

"_Love is like an hourglass, with the heart filling up as the brain empties."_ _-Jules Renard_

**Part Seven: Talking in Class**

Meanwhile, back in Mr. Simmons' classroom, the fourth graders were all talking about the exciting events of the last fifteen minutes. Mr. Simmons had to take Sheena to the nurse's office because she'd fainted at the sight of Belch's bleeding nose, always going queasy at the sight, or mere mention, of blood. The entire class was sitting at their desks as Mr. Simmons' had instructed, talking to their neighbors about the altercation in the school yard.

"Boy howdy!" Sid began, with a look of utter awe still on his face from the memory of the fight. "Can you believe how fast he went down? I mean that one punch and Belch was flat on his back!"

"Yeah," agreed Curly, who was enjoying all the chaos, even though he wasn't responsible for it this time. "WHAM-O!" he shouted, slamming his fist into his other hand with a loud slap.

"Yep, I reckon that Belch picked the wrong girl to shove to the ground, huh Gerald?" Stinky said, in his dull, drawling voice.

"No kidding, Stinky," Gerald said, nodding in agreement.

"I too am surprised by the outcome of the whole ordeal," Phoebe said, speaking up then, which she rarely ever did.

"Well, I, for one, think Helga's actions were totally inappropriate," Rhonda said, snootily, her arms crossed in front of her as she put in her two cents.

"Rhonda," Lila began. "I'm oh-so certain that I don't agree with violence any more than you do, but if she hadn't stopped that bully, I'm ever-so certain he would have beaten Arnold up badly."

"You know something?" Nadine said just then, in a very thoughtful tone of voice. "It's funny that Helga tried to stop Belch from hurting Arnold."

Arnold, who'd been listening to the conversations around him half-heartedly, blinked at Nadine's observation. Helga had indeed come to his rescue. She'd stood between him, and the danger of being beaten up by a sixth grader at her own expense. There was nothing to do but wonder at the thought of that act. Then Arnold remembered, with no small amount of surprise, that Helga looked at him afterwards with such a look of concern and worry on her face, mixed in with the pain she was undoubtedly in. It was a lot for him to take in at the moment.

The mutters in the classroom increased at the new found realization that Helga G. Pataki did indeed stand up for Arnold, the boy she had always taunted and picked on for as long as they could remember. Some of them seemed intrigued by the fact, while others were either in total shock, or disbelief of the fact.

"Oh please, Nadine," Rhonda snorted. "Helga hit that bully because he shoved her down first."

"That's right," Sid said, looking over at the girls. "Belch simply picked on the wrong girl and then . . ."

"WHAM-O!" Curly shouted, making another loud-sounding slap with his fist. "One punch!"

It was at that moment that the classroom door opened and a very queasy-looking Sheena entered. The whole class was on her at once for details.

"What happened, Sheena?"

"Did you see Helga or Belch?"

"What did you hear?"

"Was there any yelling?"

Sheena sat at her desk and looked at everyone. "Belch had to be sent to the hospital," she began, looking as if she might throw up at any moment just from the memory.

"How bad was it, Sheena?" Rhonda asked, slightly shocked by the news.

Sheena began to look even more queasy and white, if that were possible. "Well, Aunt Shelly said he had a broken nose which would need splints, a cracked cheekbone, and well as two upper teeth knocked out and a third that was broken."

"Oh, man," Gerald said, shaking his head, though not without a small amount of admiration in his voice. "I guess we should call her 'One-Punch Pataki' from now on."

"What about Helga? Is she okay, Sheena?" Arnold asked, speaking up just then, the anxiety was clear in his voice. Gerald blinked and looked over at his best friend surprised by it.

Sheena looked down, suddenly finding the top of her desk very interesting. "Helga scraped both of her knees, and . . ." She looked very queasy now. She sighed and finished, "She broke one of her knuckles on her left hand." Everyone in the room looked ill at that news, none more so than Arnold, who winced and looked down at his own desk with a sorrowful look on his face.

Sheena continued, "I heard Principal Wartz giving her a lecture as I passed the office. He sounded really mad."

"This is all my fault, Gerald," he said quietly as the rest of the classroom dissolved into more chatter. "Helga got hurt all because I hit that bully with a kickball."

"Hey man, listen, it isn't your fault that Helga hit that big kid," Gerald told him.

"I concur with Gerald, Arnold," Phoebe said to him from her desk behind them. "Helga did it to stop that bully from hurting you." She looked at Arnold then and smiled slightly. "Indeed, she did nothing that you yourself didn't do for her. If it hadn't been for you, Helga would have been hurt much worse."

Gerald looked over at Phoebe, suddenly reminded of something the whole class seemed to overlook from the fight, being too excited by its conclusion.

"Hey Arnold, come to think of it, since when are you the physical type?" Gerald asked.

Arnold blinked as he remembered the flash of anger that swept over him when he saw the sixth grader knock Helga to the cement. The only other time Arnold had ever been mad enough to fight anyone was when he and his classmates were taking part in the Pig War Re-enactment on Elk Island several months ago. The snooty Rex Smithe-Higgins III had insulted his faithful pet pig Abner, prompting Arnold to actually ball up his fist and attempted to take a swing at the jerk, being stopped only by his friends before he could actually try.

_But this is different, _Arnold tried to tell himself. _This time it was just Helga Pataki, not Gerald, or one of my family._

_But she stood up for you,_ another small voice in his football-shaped head reasoned with him.

"Hey Arnold? Are you okay, man?" Gerald said to him, throwing off his train of thought.

"Huh?" Arnold began, disoriented for a second, then he blinked and answered, "I don't know why Gerald, I just didn't like seeing Helga get pushed down like that. She did try to stop that kid from hitting me and . . ." he faltered there.

_Why on earth did Helga try to stop that bully? _He asked himself.

It was then that the classroom door opened again and Mr. Simmons appeared . . . along with Helga. The whole class gasped at Helga's appearance. Arnold felt a guilty lump in his throat. She was completely dirty from her fall to the concrete, with two white gauze bandages on her knees, one of which was brown on the spot where the blood dried. Her left hand was also wrapped with white bandages around her knuckles and wrist which also looked slightly bruised. Her face held her usual angry scowl, but when she walked to her desk, she was limping slightly.

Arnold watched her go to her desk and blinked when he saw Helga cast a sideways glance at him, and pause a moment. For an instant, he thought he saw a look cross her face, a surprised look with a touch of something else. Something familiar, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

However, as soon as he noticed it, her usual annoyed look replaced it, and she stalked over to her desk and plopped down, frowning.

Mr. Simmons went on to talk to them about the fight and how violence was wrong and solved nothing, but Arnold barely heard it because his mind was filled with thoughts of the entire fight replaying itself inside his football-shaped head.

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_Love's grimaces bear a strong resemblance to the truth." -Moliere _


	8. Part Eight

_Love /luv/ n. (1): a strong affection for another rising out of kinship or personal ties (2): attraction based on sexual desire (3): affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests.__ -Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary_

**Part Eight: A Walk Home With Helga**

The end of the school day came much later, after several classes and many more "special" assignments from Mr. Simmons. Arnold and Gerald went out the front doors together and were meet by Harold, Sid and Stinky.

"Hey, fellers, wanna go down to the docks and toss rocks at the dumpsters?" Stinky asked with his nasal, country accent.

"Sure guys, I'm in," Gerald said enthusiastically. Then he turned to his best friend, "What do you say, Arnold?"

Arnold was just about to accept, when he saw Helga walking away down the street by herself. "Um, I can't Gerald, there's something I kind-of, have to take care of, okay?" Arnold said, looking back at him.

Gerald looked at him and said with a shrug, "Um, okay. See ya later man." The two best friends did their special friendship handshake and Gerald went with the other boys talking about all of the other activities associated with the start of summer.

Arnold ran to catch up with Helga, who'd just rounded the corner out of sight. "Helga!" He called out to her. Then he turned the corner . . .

WHAM!

Arnold ran right into someone standing just around the corner, knocking him backwards to the sidewalk. He sat up, slightly disoriented from the sudden stop and when his focus returned, he looked over and saw Helga, also sitting up in front of him, holding her bandaged left fist; her face had a pale and painful expression on it. "Oh man! Helga, I am so sorry, I . . ."

Before Arnold could finish apologizing, Helga scowled over at him and snarled, "Why don't you keep your eyes on the sidewalk, you little football-headed_ twerp_?!"

"Sorry," Arnold said, again, feeling really bad. He stood up, still looking down at her bandaged hand in concern.

"Well, don't just stand there hovering over me and help me up," she told him, offering her right hand to him. Arnold took her hand and helped her to her feet. She quickly released herself from his grip and dusted herself off with her right hand, holding her left hand close to her body.

"How is your hand, Helga? Sheena told the class that your knuckle was broken." Arnold said, still feeling slightly guilty about it.

Helga looked down at her hand and frowned. "The nurse said that it was just slightly cracked and there's more bruising than anything else. It sounds worse than it is. Oh well, 'Old Betsy' will be out of commission for a few days anyhow."

She'd said the last part, trying to sound casual about it. But Arnold saw the look on Helga's face and knew it must hurt worse than she was showing. He couldn't help but feel himself smile inside. Whatever you had to say about Helga, she wasn't a crybaby.

Arnold looked down a second, and then said, "Listen Helga, I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry. It's all my fault. If that kickball hadn't hit Belch in the nose, none of this would have happened."

Helga looked at him and said, casually, "Aw, forget about it, football-head."

He looked at her and asked the question on his mind. "Helga, why did you get between me and that bully?" Arnold was quite sure of the answer to that question already, but he wanted to know for certain and wondered if Helga would say so.

Helga, for her part, had anticipated that particular question and quickly said, "Well, it wasn't like I did it for you or anything, Arnold-o, it was just that big jerk was holding up the game, that's all."

Arnold looked over at her. That explanation did make sense looking back. He sighed, surprised to find himself feeling a bit disappointed by the answer. "Oh, okay, I see."

Helga saw the look that flickered over his face for a moment and blinked. _Did he just look disappointed?_ she asked herself, feeling no small measure of astonishment at that. She then thought of a love quote she read in a literature book once made by Bayard Taylor: _"The loving are the daring." _Taking that advice, she decided to be daring.

Helga looked at him a moment and said, "Oh, um, thanks for standing up for me back there when that big jerk pushed me down. I appreciate it." There, she'd said it. She'd thanked him for coming to her rescue and defending her as he always did.

Arnold looked at her and blinked. Did she actually thank him? He couldn't believe it. He looked down, finding a crack in the sidewalk very interesting, "Oh, um, no problem, Helga. Really it was nothing."

_Yeah right, football-head,_ that same small voice in his head from before spoke up just then, which now sounded a little bit like Helga's. _You got angry and attacked him, you were doing a lot more than just stopping him, you were protecting her. _Arnold quickly shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind.

"Oh, I see," Helga said, also a bit disappointed. For a moment, she had a small daydream about Arnold standing before her and vowing that he would always fight to protect her and always be there for her.

But Arnold spoke up again, "Helga, you still saved me from that big jerk and got hurt because of it. Could I at least walk you home?" He heard himself ask her that, slightly amazed.

Helga was again surprised. Hiding the wide smile that would have come to her lips, she shrugged and said, "Whatever blows your bubble, Arnold-o."

Arnold smiled slightly and they walked together for half a block, not really saying much at first, but glancing at each other out of the corners of their eyes when the other wasn't looking and looking away quickly when the other turned to look.

It was Arnold who broke this silence by asking Helga, "What happened in the principal's office?"

Helga frowned slightly and said, "Oh, the usual, Wartz gave me his lecture on how fighting is against school policy, and told me that he would be calling my parents to tell them what I'd done."

"That's awful, Helga," Arnold said to her. "I know that fight wasn't your fault, but Principal Wartz took it out on you. He wouldn't listen to me or anyone tell him that Belch started it."

Helga looked over and could see that Arnold was really not happy about the situation. He was even sticking up for her! _Oh, my beloved!_ She thought, happily. _So just, so moral! Righting wrongs and standing up for the little guy! Oh my brave, beautiful, benevolent football-headed angel!_

"Helga?" Arnold prompted, seeing her just stop and stand there staring off into space with a dazed expression. The only other time he'd seen her look that way was back on the balcony of the FTI building. He pushed that thought back. It was way too distracting.

"Huh? What?" She frowned at him, being abruptly pulled out of her thoughts.

Arnold blinked and continued, "I was saying that when we get to your place, I can always come inside and try to explain everything to your mom and dad."

Helga actually smiled slightly for a moment, which she hid from his view. They started walking together again. Then she snorted, remembering what they were talking about. "Don't worry your weird little head over it, _hair-boy_," she told him. "They won't even notice. Even if they did, I doubt I'll hear a word about it this week anyhow."

Arnold looked over at her and saw her frown again, which he recognized as the same frown she'd had on the bus this morning. "What do you mean by that, Helga?" he asked, curious.

Helga sighed and answered disgust clear in her voice. "Because Ol-ga is coming home for the summer." (She pronounced Olga's name in her usual mocking way by sounding out both syllables of her name.)

Arnold nodded understanding now. Helga and her sister Olga had never really been very close, nor gotten along really well.

She continued to look ahead and said, in a very quiet and annoyed voice, "She'll be here in three days. My entire summer is officially down the drain."

"Oh come on, Helga," Arnold said, trying to keep her positive. "Maybe it won't be so bad. Maybe you two will get along, or find something in common."

Helga snorted derisively, "Yeah, right! Me and Olga get along? I'd rather have a root canal."

"You could at least try to talk to her, Helga. She _is_ your sister after all." Arnold said, looking at her.

"Unfortunately," Helga muttered under her breath.

Arnold sighed at that point; knowing full well what would happen if he kept talking about Olga. Helga would get really defensive and start telling him to butt-out or turn on him snarling more of her sarcastic insults. Still he had to add, "Just think about it, okay?" Helga didn't answer, nor was Arnold really expecting her to.

They reached the stoop of Helga's three story sky-blue house. "Well, here we are, Helga." Arnold said. "Are you sure you don't want me to stay a moment, in case your parents get mad?"

Helga would have loved to say yes, and a small part of her, deep down, was swooning at the idea that Arnold wanted to be around her, if just for a little while . . .

Instead, she said, "No, I'll be fine, don't worry about it. _Arnold-o_."

Arnold shrugged and turned to go, "Um, okay. Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Helga."

He took a few steps, before Helga said, "Hey Arnold!" Arnold turned and saw Helga looking at him with a slightly softer expression on her usually scowling face. "Um, thanks for walking me home, _football-head_."

For once Arnold didn't frown upon hearing her call him that. He looked at her and could somehow tell that she was grateful for him doing so. He smiled at her, his half-lidded eyes shining and said, "Anytime, Helga." Then he turned and walked away. Had he turned back before reaching the corner, he might have seen Helga watching him the whole time, with a beautiful smile on her face . . . the same smile from his dream.

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"The giving of love is an education in itself." -Eleanor Roosevelt


	9. Part Nine

"_To love is to admire with the heart; to admire is to love with the mind." -Theophile Gautier_

**Part Nine: Another Dream**

_Arnold realized he was having another good dream._

_He was standing on the deck of a small wooden sailboat sailing gracefully through the vast ocean. It was sometime in the afternoon, and overhead the yellow sun was shining down brightly from behind some white, fluffy clouds._

_Standing near the rudder control, wearing a pair of red and yellow plaid swimming trunks, Arnold surveyed the view all around him. He was surrounded by nothing but sparkling clear, sea-blue water, which stretched out endlessly around him way off into the vast horizon. The wind blew and the warm ocean breeze kissed his bare chest and waved his golden blonde hair behind him._

_Nearby, a pair of gray dolphins splashed nearby, actually racing along with his boat, cackling their unique language to him. Arnold smiled at them, a soft sea spray from the waves splashing him in the face making him laugh slightly._

_A large Humpback whale suddenly broke the surface off in the distance, its spray went up white into the air and its tail lifted out of the water and splashed once more before it went back under. On the other side of the boat, in water so clear that Arnold could see down to the shallow bottom; a manta ray appeared, its dark body gliding gracefully along the bottom of the white sand beneath, like an angel of the sea. Overhead, a flock of sea gulls glided along the wind currents, squawking their song over the waves. They even seemed to hover above Arnold, their feathers rippling in the sea breeze._

_Arnold sighed heavily. Nothing around him but the peace and quiet of the open sea. He was all alone with his thoughts, far away from homework and school, boarders and chores. He looked up to see the white clouds forming shapes. One of them looked a lot like his best friend, Gerald and another like Abner, his pet pig._

_Being so intent on the clouds, Arnold failed to notice the sharp coral reefs ahead of him, until his boat collided roughly with one of them, jolting the boat and tearing it to pieces. The abrupt motion sent Arnold tumbling out of the boat into the water._

_Arnold became worried and was wondering if he could actually drown in his dream, when suddenly, he felt a strong pair of hands grab him around his waist. He struggled at first, till the arms pulled him closely to another body. One of the arms left his waist and he felt himself being pulled through the water._

"_Stay calm," a female voice told him. "Don't panic, Arnold. I'm here for you."_

_He did as the voice said and calmed down, no longer struggling against whoever it was. Arnold opened his eyes just enough to see he was being pulled to the nearby shore of a small tropical island teaming with exotic trees and white sand beaches. He felt his feet touching shore under the water, and could feel the cool wet sand from the surf between his toes._

_Arnold fell to his knees on the dry, white sand beach, crawled on all fours and began coughing out water from his lungs. He felt someone kneel down next to him, and saw a shadow on the ground with his own. He felt a hand, soft but also very strong, against his left shoulder. "Are you okay, Arnold?"_

_Again, Arnold blinked as he heard the voice of the person who'd obviously saved his life. He recognized that voice, different in tone from the one he usually knew. Arnold turned his head and blinked again, as if not really believing what he was seeing._

_Helga was there next to him, standing barefoot on the sand, wearing a wet, white T-shirt with pink flower designs on it, which was now wet and clinging to the curves of her body (such as they were for a nine-year-old girl), the material thin enough to expose the fact that she wore a pink bikini bathing suit underneath. Her soft, blonde hair was wet, clinging against her head; a pink and white tropical flower was placed strategically over her left ear._

_Taking in all these facts, Arnold saw the worried look on her face, concern showing in her deep blue eyes, then he blinked himself, realizing with a start that it was the exact some look the real Helga had given him just after she'd stopped that bully from beating him silly. She looked so afraid for him just now._

_Arnold sat up on his knees and heard himself answer, nodding, "I-I'm fine, Helga. Um, thanks for saving me back there."_

_Then, all at once, Arnold was again surprised when the worried look on her face suddenly turned into a look of such compassion and caring that he could do nothing more than blink at it. Her blue eyes suddenly brightened as she said, smiling and in a voice much more gentle than her normal one, "Arnold, I would do anything for you."_

_Now, Arnold felt the smooth texture of her hand as it slowly made its way up his shoulder to his neck. She leaned in toward Arnold's face, closing her eyes, her lips together . . . Arnold was too surprised by these actions to do anything but sit there on his knees as she leaned in, her face inching closer and closer . . . he could feel the warmth of her breath tickling his ear as she whispered, "Oh, Arnold, I . . ."_

"Hey Arnold! Hey Arnold! Hey Arnold!"

Arnold closed his eyes tightly against the real world. He put a pillow over his head to block out the sunlight and his alarm clock, trying to stay in the dream somehow, but to no avail. The alarm clock won out. Sighing, he tossed the pillow aside and pulled the wire from the potato with a groan. He sat up, looking at his covers, the vision of Helga whispering his name running through his mind.

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_Another aspect of the pattern is that one falls in love not be design and conscious choice, but according to some accident of fate over which the victim has no control." -Sydney M. Greenfield_


	10. Part Ten

"_Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence."_ _-H. L. Mencken_

**Part Ten: The Unexpected Announcement**

_Her eyes had been the deepest oceans of blue as her face inched closer and closer to his. He could still feel her breath against his ear as she whispered his name softly, her blonde hair tickling against his cheek. He could remember the pink color of her lips . . ._

"Hey Arnold! Hello, is anyone in there, man?"

Arnold blinked and his daydreaming gaze suddenly focused back reluctantly into the real world, where Gerald was leaning over on the lunch table, waving his hand inches in front of Arnold's nose. "Huh? What? Oh, err, sorry Gerald," Arnold said, looking down at his tray at the barely touched school pizza that the lunch lady made generously so near to the end of the school year.

Around him throughout P.S. 118's cafeteria, several conversations from the various tables where his own class and another fourth grade class were chatting away with more than the usual excitement. He could distinctly hear Harold's mocking laughter at Sid for some reason or another . . . Rhonda talking snidely about the attire of a fifth grader she'd seen in the ladies room . . . Curly talking to himself and giggling for who knows what reason, nothing Arnold was sure he'd wanna know about . . . Eugene and Shenna discussing some more dance steps . . .

"_Criminy!"_

That loud shout broke Arnold off of the other conversations. He turned his head toward the source and saw Helga standing up over Phoebe and shouting at her, "What the heck is the matter with you! Can't you _watch_ where you're going! Sheesh!" She was holding her wrist with her other hand.

"S-sorry, Helga," Phoebe said meekly, holding her tray close to her, but so close she was in danger of spilling the contents on her clothes.

Helga snorted and stomped out of the line toward the exit where Arnold and Gerald sat at their table. As she passed by Sid's chair, he scooted it up more, and kept eyeing her balled up fist warily. Obviously the punishment she'd inflicted on Belch had made her tough girl reputation even more formidable. Earlier that morning, Arnold remembered seeing Big Patty give Helga a respectful nod and thumbs up, which Helga responded to with a barely noticeable nod back. Even Wolfgang had made way for her as she passed some fifth graders in the hallway later on that morning, eyeing her a little more respectfully.

As she passed by him, Helga glanced over at Arnold, who was again looking at her strangely. She stopped and looked at him, scowling. "What are you looking at_ geek-bait?_!"

Arnold frowned slightly and looked away then. _Why does she do it? Why does she always have to act like that?_ He thought to himself annoyed.

Helga snorted and walked out of the cafeteria into the hallway making her way to the girl's bathroom. After looking under the stalls to make sure nobody was there, she pulled her locket with the cracked glass from her pink jumper and looked upon the image of the boy she'd just insulted.

"Oh Arnold, why must I always insult you the way I do? Why must I always mock you with sarcastic tongue-lashings, rather than the sweet words of love and adoration that I harbor deep within my very soul?" She held the locket close to her heart and sighs. "Why am I always doomed to a meaningless existence of forever watching you from afar, too timid and bashful to be close, to show you that there is more to me than just a mean, scowling bully? If only I had a chance to prove to you that I am so much more than I appear to be."

She closes her eyes, the locket against her chest . . . then hears an all too familiar breathing coming from the trash can near the door, where Brainy rises from. He looks at her, breathing and smiling that weird smile of his. "Uh, hello," he mutters in his deep breathing voice.

Helga scowls and starts to hit him, but remembers that her fist is bandaged, so instead she grabs him and tosses him into one of the stalls, head first. There is a flush as the pink-painted stall door shuts. Helga stalks out back to the cafeteria, replacing her locket to its place as she stalked out.

Back in the cafeteria, just after Helga left, Gerald frowned and looked over at Phoebe sympathetically. "I wonder how Phoebe survives having Helga G. Pataki as a best friend?" He shakes his head.

Arnold sighs, the lingering memory of his dream still in his head. "I don't know either Gerald, but I do know that sometimes Helga isn't too bad. Think about what she did yesterday."

Gerald looks over at him. "Hey man, I know the girl saved you from getting your head split open yesterday, but if you ask me I think she did it because Helga's just a bad girl to mess with."

Arnold looked at Gerald and thought about it._ Maybe he was right? But then again—_

"Helga can be really mean sometimes, but I know that she's not a bad as she acts all the time?"

Helga had been about to go into the cafeteria when he heard her football-headed angel say those words. She stopped short and gasped, moving closer to the doorframe to hear them better.

Gerald blinked and looked at his friend as if he were a little strange. "Hey Arnold, this is Helga were talking about here, she's always been a tough person to deal with." He raised an eyebrow at Arnold, "Why do you suddenly defending her man? I mean, she picks on you in particular more often than anyone else in this school."

Sighing Arnold replies, "I know she does, but sometimes she can be . . . I don't know . . . okay, I guess."

In the hallway not more than ten feet from them, Helga smiled at that._ He _does_ care,_ she thought smiling to herself in a goofy way. She leaned against the wall and sighed happily.

Gerald shakes his head, "Arnold man, I worry about you buddy. You calling Helga Pataki 'okay' what's next, you asking her out on a date?"

Arnold blinked and looked at his best friend, "Yeah right, me and Helga Pataki on a date . . ." He said it was a hint of sarcasm and a little amusement.

Unfortunately, at that moment, Rhonda and Nadine had been dumping their leftovers into the garbage can near their table. Rhonda Wellington Lloyd, who had an ear for gossip and who did not pick up on the sarcasm. She turned and looked at the two boys wide-eyed.

"Whoa! Hold up! A _date_? Arnold and Helga on a date?!" Her eyes were gleaming with a look of utter surprise. "Oh-my-gosh!" She pronounced the last part emphasizing the three words with single sharp syllables.

Arnold blinked again and turned around, "What?" He looked at the look Rhonda had and his own eyes widened. "W-wait a minute! I never said . . ."

She cut him off, not letting him have time to say more. Rhonda had heard all she was going to hear. "Oh yes you did, Arnold! I heard you!" She turned around and looked at Nadine, "Arnold wants to ask Helga Pataki out on a date! This is too weird!"

Several of the fourth graders heard those words; many of them turned and looked at Arnold strangely, muttering to themselves. Harold and Sid started laughing. Phoebe blinked and looked at Arnold surprised, as did Lila and Sheena.

"Now wait a minute!" Arnold tried to say, starting again.

Again he was cut off by Rhonda. "Oh come on, Arnold, I heard you with my own ears." Nadine nodded also, having missed the slight sarcasm in Arnold's words as well.

Outside in the hallway, Helga smirked watching Arnold squirm over this. _Trust 'Little Miss. Rhonda-Lloyd' to not let him explain himself better_, she thought shaking her head and started to walk in to put a stop to all this . . . when a little voice in her head stopped her.

_Criminy Helga! What are you doing?!_ The little voice in her head told her. _Don't you see_ _a good thing with it comes your way?!_

Helga paused, thinking about this. Arnold was about to be picked on for talking about a date with her, which was only a misunderstanding on Rhonda's part.

Then suddenly she blinked, a very clear and amusing idea was forming in her head. She smiled to herself. _Oh this is almost _too_ perfect,_ she thought to herself, making the decision very quickly.

Helga stomped inside the cafeteria, using her normal scowl to shoot looks at people. "What the heck is going on in here?!" she asked, pretending to have just returned and having not heard anything.

Rhonda smirked, "Believe it or not Helga but Arnold was just about to ask you out on a date."

Arnold's eyes widened when Helga reappeared, and his face fell when Rhonda uttered those words. "WHAT?! Wait, I never said . . ."

Helga turned and looked at him, her gaze intent on him, suddenly made him very quiet. "You and me? A date? Criminy,_ football-head_ that is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard . . ."

She smiled a little to herself, wondering what his reaction will be to the next part. "Still, I guess that since I saved your scrawny butt yesterday, you do owe me a little something. So I'll do you a favor and say yes."

Helga felt a chuckle build inside her watching Arnold's pupils shrink at that._ He looks so cute like that, _she thought to herself.

Rhonda looked a bit taken aback also as did everyone watching. Gerald looked wide-eyed at her. Normally this would have been too much for her to let happen, but her excuse about "making up" for the fight was just enough of a cover for her true intentions.

Arnold felt his throat tighten and a bit dizzy. _I-is this really happening?! _He asked himself in shock. This is all happening way too fast.

"W-wait!" Arnold tried desperately to stop this, but again was cut off by Helga. She pointed a finger at his nose and said, "How about dinner and a movie, seven sharp? Pick me up at my house, and nothing on the cheep side, bucko!" She turned to leave, feeling a bundle of nerves and excitement in her stomach.

"Helga, wait a sec . . ." Arnold tried once more, feeling himself totally losing control of this situation.

Helga smirked and turned, adding, "Oh, and you better dress up for this. I don't wanna be seen with a slob tonight. See you at seven,_ football-head_!" She turned back and stomped out, shouting, "Phoebe! Come on, let's blow this joint."

"Coming!" Phoebe said, running quickly to catch up, and glancing at Arnold out of the corner of her glasses as she passed him and Gerald.

Arnold, for his part, looked very pale and at a loss. _I—I'm going on a date with Helga G. Pataki?! _His mind was still trying to process this information and not doing so well.

Gerald glances over at him, snickering into his hand very hard, and his eyes watering from the laughter he was holding back desperately.

There was a lot of general muttering over the last few minute's events. Rhonda and the girls gossiped and the boys were all either laughing at Arnold's misfortune, or giving his looks of sympathy.

Arnold, for his part, just stared after Helga as she left feeling totally disoriented and thinking to himself, _how did I get myself into this mess?_

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_Our love must not be a thing of words and fine talk. It must be a thing of action and sincerity." -1 John 3:18_


	11. Part Eleven

"_Love is a human religion in which another is believed in."_ _-Robert Seidenberg_

**Part Eleven: Preparing For the Date**

Arnold felt his annoyance reaching its limits as he walked down the street next to Gerald, who was still laughing over his best friend's situation.

"Gerald," Arnold said, inclining his football-shaped head enough to glance at Gerald through half-lidded eyes, giving him a really ticked-off look. "You're really beginning to bug me."

Gerald's laughing quickly became a choked-up snicker. Finally he was able to say, almost breathlessly, "Sorry man. Still, you should have seen the look on your face." Then the snickers started back up again and he laughed out loud some more.

Frowning, Arnold kicked an empty soda can really hard where it bounced off a wall into a nearby alley. A cat screamed, then ran out moments later. "Gerald, why in the world didn't you speak up when Rhonda said all that stuff at lunch?" He asked, looking over at his best friend.

"Hey buddy, even if I had, it wouldn't have done any good. You know our classmates, once an idea is in their heads, there's no telling them different." Gerald explained. "Remember the incident with the bag of money?"

Arnold nodded remembering that all too well. Being tied to the tether-ball pole had not been fun at all. Every one of his classmates, thanks to Sid's big mouth, thought that Arnold was a thief and stole a bag of money that he, Arnold and Gerald found in an alley. Despite Gerald finally coming to his aid, they kept refusing to believe till the person who found it after Arnold lost it showed up.

Ironically, Arnold recalled that Helga hadn't been a part of that incident herself. Funny he'd never thought about that before?

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Arnold conceded finally. Then another thought occurred to him. "I can't believe that Helga actually believed it and even went along with it."

Gerald shook his head, frowning a little, "She probably wants to use this whole 'date' as an excuse to take advantage of you again, like she did back on April Fools Day, remember when she made you carry her across the street and buy her ice cream?"

Arnold thought about that. It sort-of made sense, though it didn't feel right for some reason. Then he remembered briefly about the incident at FTI and Helga kissing him. He pushed that thought away quickly.

"Listen, man, when you get home, just call Helga and tell her that it was all a misunderstanding and cancel," Gerald said.

As he thought about that, Arnold couldn't help remembering how Helga winced holding her bruised knuckles the other day when he ran into her. A pang of guilt from remembering the kickball incident came to his mind. He sighed, "I can't, Gerald. I was responsible for her hand being bruised, I guess the least I can do is take her out."

Gerald stopped, "Arnold man, are you nuts! You and Helga G. Pataki on a date?!" Arnold stopped and turned to look at him. Gerald continued, "She'll drive you crazy and probably make you pay for everything and get her stuff! Listen, man, you don't owe her anything. Just call her and tell her that you're sick. You know that Tasmanian Flu that's going around, or something?"

Arnold sighs, "Maybe you're right Gerald. I mean, I can't really imagine myself on a date with Helga Pataki." The mental images of him taking Helga, dressed in her usual pink jumper and pigtails, to places where she'd yell at or make fun of people came to mind. One in particular was an image of him forced to carry a large tub of popcorn and other junk food into a theater where Helga would yell at the screen and fuss at people for telling her to be quiet. He shuddered slightly.

Then he recalled the worried look on her face when she looked up at him after she'd knocked out that jerk Belch two days ago. The concern he saw in her eyes, if he hadn't been imagining things, made him soften a bit.

Arnold shook his head, "No Gerald, I got myself into this, and I guess I do owe it to her for stopping that bully and getting hurt."

Gerald shook his head, "Hum, um, um. Arnold, you are one bold kid. I still think you're nuts, but bold." Arnold actually sort-of smiled a little at that.

They continued on to Gerald's house on the next street. Gerald looked at him, "If you want me to, I can follow you and make sure that Helga doesn't do anything to humiliate you."

He thought about this, but again shook his head, "Nah, its okay, Gerald. Thanks for the offer, but I think I need to see this through alone."

His best friend sighed and wiped his forehead, "Oh, thank goodness, man. I was worried you actually _wanted_ me to." Arnold shot him a look and sighed, resigned to his fate.

Gerald did say one more thing, "Just make sure that Helga doesn't take advantage of you, man." He said this as they reached Gerald's stoop.

He nodded, "I promise. Gerald, I won't let Helga bully me. Maybe things won't be so bad." He said the last part more out of hope than actually belief in the words themselves.

They nodded and did their friendship handshake, putting their fists together and wiggling their thumbs. "Good luck, Arnold," Gerald said to him with sympathy. "You'll need it."

Arnold gave him a sarcastic look, "Thanks, Gerald, you're a pal."

"Hey call me when you get home tonight." Gerald added. "I wanna make sure you're still alive."

Arnold actually smiled at that, "I will, Gerald." He turned and walked off to his house slowly, leaving Gerald to watch after him sadly, sighing and shaking his head. "He's a dead man."

* * *

Helga ran almost all of the way home after school and walked into the house, ignoring her parents—who took no note of her anyhow because they were too busy dusting off all of Olga's trophies and certificates.

She ran into her room and locked the door, then turned to her closet. Opening the door and pushing back the clothes she saw her newest shrine to her beloved Arnold. It was made up entirely of clay with two green jellybeans for eyes. Several of his previous class and yearbook pictures and several photos she'd secretly taken of him were taped up all over the walls around a set of Christmas lights which lit up the whole closet in an eerie glow.

Her previous shrine in the attic was now filled up with a lot of junk that her dad put up there. So she had to return to smaller shrines in her closet.

Pushing the play button on her CD player and playing some romantic violin music, Helga dropped to her knees and gazed at her shrine lovingly. "Oh Arnold, my love, my little football-headed angel of reason. Again I find myself, by a bizarre twist of fate, on our first official date of all things. I am excited and happy, yet troubled."

Indeed, she wondered if forcing him like that turned out to be a good idea after all. On one hand she got the date with Arnold—or at least dinner and a movie anyhow, yet she had to use her usual cunning instead of him asking of her own free will.

"Was it right of me to make you take me on a date by placing guilt on you?" She asked herself. Helga sighed, "I need a sign."

On her left shoulder, a small flame burst and a little red devil that looked like Wolfgang dressed in a red costume and pitchfork appeared. She glanced at him surprised.

"What the h-e-double hockey sticks are you complaining about?" The Wolfgang-devil said to her. "You got what you wanted, so stop complaining about it being right and enjoy yourself."

Helga blinked and then glanced at her other shoulder waiting on the opposing opinion.

On her right shoulder, another burst of flame appeared and another little red devil—one that looked like Ludwig—also with a pitchfork stood there.

"Okay, normally this is where that little wussy angel shows up and tell you to 'do the right thing,' the Ludwig-devil said to her, doing sarcastic quotations at the last part. Then he smirked, "But be both sucker-punched that little dweeb on the way here, so it's smooth sailing. Have a ball Helga ole girl!"

They both disappeared in a couple of fireballs laughing.

Helga smiled her bad girl smile. "So I had to fast talk Arnold. Big deal, I still get to have a date. And the best part is that he's so full of guilt over the whole kickball thing he won't argue. He'll have to go. Boy what a great plan!" She laughed a little.

Suddenly on Helga's right shoulder a small flash of white Heavenly light appeared. A small Arnold dressed in white with wings and a small golden halo appeared. He looked ruffled, one of his wings was bent and he had a small black eye. His halo was also crooked above his small football-shaped head.

Helga blinked, "Oh, what do _YOU_ want?"

The Arnold-angel shook his head at her, "Sorry I'm late." He sighed. "Helga, you're not going to win Arnold's love by tricking him into a date. Deep down you know that too."

Helga sighed. She knew that all too well. All of her past attempts to do so failed miserably.

The Arnold-angel looked at her with those little versions of Arnold's green eyes, "You can't manipulate someone you really love. The best thing to do would be to call Arnold and cancel the date."

Helga frowned and snorted, "Humph! Fat chance! However I managed to get this date I still have it and I'm not about to give it up, bucko! I had to wait this long just to get that much!" She crossed her arms defiantly.

The Arnold-angel looked at her and sighed, "Okay, okay," He shook his head. "I don't like it, but fine you can go on this date. Still, the least you can do is _try_ to be on your best behavior tonight. Don't resort to being Helga the bully. Be the person who loves him. Show him that you're more than just a tough girl with a bully's reputation."

Helga looked at the little angel and said, "You're right!" She smiled. "Tonight I'll show Arnold that I can be more than just some mean, scowling bully. Tonight, I'll show him my softer, kinder side."

The angel smiled and nodded. "Just be yourself Helga . . . your true self . . . and show Arnold that you can be a better person. Who knows, he may even surprise you and show he cares back?"

Helga nodded to him. "You really think so?"

He nodded smiling that cute Arnold smile that made Helga's heart skip a beat.

"Okay, I'll try."

The Arnold-angel nodded, still smiling Arnold's small smile, "Good Helga, now I have to go." He held up a small wooden baseball bat. "I have a couple of sucker-punching little geek-baits to find." He smirked very un-angel-like then and disappeared in a flash of light.

Helga blinked and shook her head. Then she looked around to find some appropriate clothes for her date with her own football-headed little angel.

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_Where love is concerned, too much is never enough." _

_-Pierre-Augustine De Beaumarchais_


	12. Part Twelve

"_Love is such a tissue of paradoxes, and exists in such endless variety of forms and shades that you may say almost anything about it that you please, and it is likely to be correct."__ -Henry Finck_

**Part Twelve: The Start of a Very Long Night**

Arnold looked at himself in the full length mirror he set up next to the couch in his room. He was dressed in a white shirt and black tie with his usual red plaid shirt unbuttoned over it with black dress pants and matching black shoes. He was fumbling slightly with his black tie as someone knocked on the door.

"Come in," Arnold said, frowning slightly at his tie in the mirror.

With a slight creak, the door opened and his grandpa Phil entered, smiling at him in his typical good-natured way. "Hey there, short man. Whoa, you're looking pretty sharp there."

"Oh, thanks grandpa," he said, with very little enthusiasm as he continuing fighting with his tie.

Phil tilted his head. "What are ya getting all dressed up for?"

Arnold paused and sighed saying, "I um, have a date with Helga."

Phil smiled slightly, "Your cranky little friend with the pink bow and the one eyebrow? The one that was always picking on you and calling you names?"

Arnold nodded and slumped his shoulders, "Yeah."

His grandpa chuckled and walked over, patting Arnold's shoulder in an aged hand. "I see you're really growing up, Shortman. One day you two are at each others throats, the next day you two are going out on dates. Tomorrow, Pookie and I'll be going to plan for the wedding reception." He winked at Arnold.

"Grandpa!" Arnold said, frowning slightly at his grandpa's teasing. "It's not like that at all! I mean, this is just Helga were talking about."

"Why the long face there, Arnold?" Phil asked concerned as he helped Arnold fix his tie properly.

He sighed and turned to his grandpa. "I can't help feeling that things are going to be bad. I didn't really plan this. Things got sort-of complicated at school and I ended up getting set up into this whole date." Arnold rubbed the back of his neck. "Still, I can't back out. Helga got hurt the other day because of me and I feel like I need to make it up to her somehow."

Phil stroked his chin, "Hum, well I suppose you have to see this through then." He smiled and pulled out a couple of twenties from his pocket and gave them to Arnold. "Here ya go, Arnold. Be sure and have a good time, but don't keep her out too late."

Arnold took the bills, "Thanks Grandpa."

"Have fun tonight Arnold," his grandpa said as he walked to the door. He paused and looked back at him saying, "Ah youth." then he left.

Arnold smiled slightly and shook his head.

_Have fun? More like be brave,_ Arnold thought to himself as he checked himself in the mirror. Then he looked at the clock and saw that it was 6:35 PM already. He looked back at himself in the mirror and sighed.

"Good luck, Arnold," he said to his reflection, who in turn repeated it to him. Then Arnold turned and walked out of his room and downstairs to the front door. He opened it and stood aside as about a dozen cats and dogs and his loyal pet pig Abner ran in. He left the boarding house and walked up the street to Helga's house.

As he walked, Arnold tried to think about how he got into all of this.

Him . . . on a date . . . with Helga G. Pataki of all people!

The last time he felt anywhere this bad was when Rhonda told him that he would end up marrying Helga through her origami marriage predictor. Not that Arnold believed in that sort-of stuff, but the fact he got picked to marry Helga a hundred and ten times was a bit unnerving. He'd felt cold in the pit of his stomach at the thought. This ultimately resulted in a nightmare he had that same evening where he was indeed married to his childhood nemesis.

The thought of dreams thought brought back his most recent dreams concerning Helga. He remembered then that at the end of his married to Helga dream, that Helga's dream version opened up to him, dropping her usual scowling, tough-girl attitude and seemed . . . well nice.

Arnold's last two dreams had a nicer version of Helga in them too—a fact which still surprised him to no end. That version of Helga was not only nicer to Arnold, she was warm, open, caring with her feelings and . . .

Smiling.

Arnold blinked and almost tripped over his feet as that thought hit him. In his dreams, Helga was always smiling at him with a very lovely wide smile.

He'd rarely ever seen Helga smile, almost always when she was torturing him for some reason or another, or picking on someone else. Her wide smile was always sarcastic and full of amusement as someone else's expense.

But the smile in his dreams was a more genuine smile . . . a smile he'd only seen hints of on Helga's face on a very few occasions. When she smiled like that . . .

_Helga actually sort-of look_ _nice when she smiles,_ he thought to himself in wonder.

A voice in the back of his head spoke up just then, saying, _Sort-of_ _nice? Heck she looked beautiful, don't try to downplay what you thought, bucko!_ Arnold felt annoyed that the little voice sounded a little like Helga herself, but he couldn't help but wonder if it was right as he thought about the versions of Helga from his last two dreams.

He was so deep in recollection that Arnold almost passed the Pataki house. Arnold stopped and looked up at the stoop to the front door. He sighed and walked up reluctantly; wondering if a person condemned to the gallows felt this way. He knew he was only moments away from beginning a date from hell.

He reached over and rang the doorbell. There was the sound of footsteps and the door opened. Miriam Pataki stood there looking at Arnold and actually looking a little more focused than normal. She smiled at him, "Oh, hi there, um . . . Albert right? Good to see you again."

"Oh, um, hello again, Mrs. Pataki, it's good to see you again too," Arnold said, forcing himself to smile a little and not bothering to correct her. "I came to pick up Helga."

Miriam smiled and invited him in. "She's upstairs getting ready, um, I think?"

She closed the door and led Arnold into the living room where Big Bob was polishing off the largest of several dozen golden and silver trophies. He took no notice of Arnold. Indeed, Arnold was usually uncomfortable around Big Bob Pataki anyways, so made no effort to draw attention to himself. He stayed just outside in the hallway.

Miriam disappeared into the kitchen without really saying another word. Arnold blinked, but decided it was best to just wait on Helga here.

There were footsteps on the stairs and Arnold turned to see Helga walking down, her usual scowl on her face. She was wearing a white and pink striped sweater with a pink skirt and a pair of pink sandals. Her hair was free from her usual pigtails and tied behind her in a ponytail with her pink ribbon.

Arnold blinked and looked at her, taking in the sight of how different she looked just then. She was obviously taking their whole "date" quite seriously. "Um, hi, Helga," he said, watching as she reached the bottom of the stairs. "You ready to go?"

Helga looked at him and nodded. "Ready as I'll ever be Arnold-o." Arnold was about to scowl in annoyance, but then, for a second, he saw something strange. Helga blinked and a small annoyed look crossed her face. However, it seemed more directed at herself rather than at him.

Helga looked back at him and muttered, "Um, I mean, I'm ready, Arnold."

He stared at her and Arnold thought to himself,_ did I just see Helga try to restrain herself right then?_ Shaking his head slightly and sighing, wondering if he wasn't somewhat tired, he said, "We probably better get going."

Helga looked at him and nodded, "Right."

Arnold opened the door for her and she walked through, a small smile came to her face.

_So this night begins, _They both thought at the same exact time, though with different feelings behind the words. For Helga, it was the beginning of a dream come to life, but for Arnold, it was the start of what he thought would be a very_ long_ evening.

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_Love is supreme and unconditional; like is nice but limited." -Duke Ellington_


	13. Part Thirteen

"_If love is the answer, could you repeat the question?"__ -Lily Tomlin_

**Part Thirteen: The Date (Part One)**

As they stepped down from the stoop of Helga's house, Arnold looked over toward the west, where the sun was only now beginning to set. Summertime was almost here and the days were now getting much longer. He sighed, knowing that he too was about to have a long night.

Arnold looked over at Helga and noticed that she too was looking at the slowly setting sun. He blinked to see that she seemed to be appreciating the sight before her. Then almost as if she knew he was looking at her, she glanced over at him, and then scowled slightly.

"So, um Helga," Arnold said, trying his best to get past this first awkward moment. He looked her outfit over and said, "You look sort-of nice tonight." Actually he thought she looked very nice with her hair tied in the back. Beautiful in fact.

Helga looked over at him, trying to determine if he was offering her a complement or not. "Sort-of nice?" She asked, raising her eyebrow.

Arnold blinked and muttered, "Oh, um, I mean—err um, you look very nice tonight, Helga." He knew he'd put his foot in his mouth.

Helga frowned a little, realizing that all he was doing was being polite, and not doing a very good job of making it sound sincere. She snorted, "Well you don't look _too _much like a geek tonight either, _bucko_." She realized after she'd said it that she reverted back to her usual bully behavior.

Arnold rolled his eyes and sighed, sounding tired. "So, um, what would you like to do first, Helga?" He asked her with just a small touch of wariness.

Helga looked over at him and smirked, "Hey, this whole date thing was your idea, _football-head._ You pick." Again she knew she'd done something else she should have refrain from, but it was too much of a habit for her and too late to catch herself just then.

Arnold frowned slightly at her usual nickname for him, then trying to ignore it, said, "Let's go get something to eat first. That sound good to you?"

"Yeah, I'm sort-of hungry," she nodded.

Together they walked away up the street toward the city, Helga smiling (though not noticeably to Arnold) and Arnold trying his best to make the most out of all of this.

Little did the half-reluctant couple know, but they were being watched.

* * *

Despite his words earlier on their trip from school, Gerald decided to follow his best friend on his "date" to make sure that Helga didn't do anything to humiliate Arnold. He sat behind a nearby garbage can next to a stoop across the street watching as the two blondes began to walk uptown.

Gerald was about to stand up, waiting till they were out of sight when he noticed another figure emerging from the other side of the stoop next to his garbage can.

He blinked and whispered, "Phoebe?!"

The short petite oriental girl froze in her tracks and turned toward the garbage cans, her dark eyes wide with surprise as Gerald stood up and made his presence known.

"Oh, err . . . g-greetings Gerald," Phoebe stammered nervously, an awkward smile on her face.

"What are you doing hiding back there?" He asked her, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh . . . well, I was um . . ." She began, and then paused. She blinked at him and asked, "Might I also inquire as to your purpose for hiding behind those garbage cans as well?"

Now it was Gerald's turn to stammer, "Oh, err, w-well I was, um . . ." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

Phoebe only nodded and said, "I see, you're also here to observe Arnold and Helga the same as I was." She looked back toward the two blonds making their way up the street.

Gerald nodded also. "I wanted to keep an eye on them, particularly Helga." Gerald frowned a little and watched after the two. "I just wanna make sure she doesn't try to humiliate him, or anything."

Phoebe frowned a little also, but not for the same reason Gerald did. Phoebe knew exactly how much spending some time with Arnold meant to her best friend, although she couldn't tell Gerald about that, as much as she wanted to. Despite her deep respect and, well attraction to Gerald, her loyalty to Helga was absolute and she would keep her secrets.

"Gerald, I do not believe Helga would agree to go out with Arnold with such a goal in mind," she simply said.

Gerald seemed lost in thought for a moment there and then asked, musing mostly to himself, "You know, it is sort-of strange that Helga _would_ even consider going out on a date with Arnold, even if she thought he owed her somehow."

Phoebe nodded, doing her best to not give anything away. "I too must admit that such an occurrence is quite unusual."

"No kidding," Gerald nodded. "I mean, Arnold and Helga . . . on a date . . . together," he shuddered. "It'll be a nightmare."

Phoebe also had to wonder if Helga's normal combative attitude would play a factor in the events of this evening. Silently, Phoebe prayed that things go well for both of them. More than anyone else she knew how much this meant to her best friend.

Gerald now looked at Phoebe, in that sort-of shy way he always did when he was alone with her for a while. "So, um, since we're both following our best friends, would you mind if we . . . um, you know . . ."

Smiling, Phoebe felt herself blush as she realized what Gerald was asking. "Um, w-well, I think that we could certainly . . . um, observe Arnold and Helga from a distance . . . you know, together."

The two nine-year-olds looked very shyly at each other as they walked off in the direction of the other couple, both of them smiling and stealing shy glances at each other from the corners of their eyes.

Arnold and Helga made their way to a small seafood restaurant about six blocks away called "The Captain's Galley." It was a nice family-oriented restaurant with lots of round tables. The dining area walls were decorated with pictures of the beach and boats and several stuffed fishing trophies. One of these was a large marlin behind the counter at the front.

"Welcome to the Captain's Galley," said a pretty blonde-haired teenager with an Australian accent that greeted them. "My name is Bridget and I'll be your waitress for this evening. May I show you to a table?"

Arnold nodded, "Yes, please."

"Just the two of you tonight then, sir?" Bridget asked smiling at him and then leaning toward Helga a little. "Oh my, aren't you two just a cute little couple." Arnold blinked a little and felt embarrassed by the extra attention.

Helga just frowned a little to cover up her own embarrassment and then said sarcastically, "Yeah, yeah, whatever just show us to the table, Sheela."

Bridget, for her part, stayed professional, however her smile did falter a second and she blinked slightly. "Oh, err, right. Well, follow me, mates." She led them a bit stiffly to a small table near the corner of the restaurant next to a large fish tank full of several exotic-looking fish and even a couple of miniature sharks swimming around some neat looking coral reef.

Arnold reminded himself that Helga was a girl and he was on a technical date with her and so he pulled out a chair for her. Helga sat down, but didn't really thank him. He didn't know if he actually expected her to.

"Well, I have to go check on some more orders. I'll be back in a moment to take your orders." She left them a couple of menus and left, giving Helga a small look of annoyance as she left.

Arnold looked at Helga and said, frowning slightly, "That wasn't very nice Helga. She was only trying to pay us a complement."

Helga blew air through her teeth, "Yeah, well she should stick to just doing her stupid job." She looked up in time to see Arnold roll his eyes and sigh before picking up the menu in front of him and looking it over, frowning. Deep down though, Helga knew that Arnold had a point and she mentally kicked herself for going back to her usual bully behavior.

"So, what would you like?" Arnold said, looking at the menu. Everything on the menu wasn't all that expensive thankfully.

Helga looked down at her own menu thoughtfully. "Well, the shrimp looks good. And the stuffed crab." Arnold nodded, not saying much more. Helga worried that he was still mad at her for her behavior.

The truth was Arnold wasn't all that surprised by Helga's behavior, though he was somewhat disappointed despite himself. He'd hope she would at least try to be on her better behavior.

Arnold was also nervous spending this much time with her alone. He was worried about doing or saying something that would make her temper flare. It was always risky getting involved with a girl as unpredictable as Helga. So Arnold made up his mind on the walk here to say as little as possible, and just try to get through this night in one piece.

Helga meanwhile looked up from her menu and saw the expression on Arnold's face and realized that she was in danger of messing up right now. She felt a little guilty and then looked back down at the menu and though, _you can do this, Helga. Don't you dare blow it!_

Bridget returned to their table, she was giving Helga a small annoyed glance and then she addressed Arnold, "So are you guys ready to order now?"

"Um, yes I believe so," Arnold said and was about to begin with ordering when Helga interrupted him.

"Hey, um, Bridget?" Helga began.

Bridget turned her blue eyes on Helga, a neutral expression on her face. "Yes ma'am?"

Helga looked down at the table a moment rubbing her hands and she looked back and the teenager and said, "Listen, about what I said earlier . . . um, I was rude and . . ." she sighed, "I'm sorry."

Arnold blinked and felt his jaw drop. He felt totally surprised now. Helga actually apologized?! Without someone having to twist her arm?! What surprised Arnold more was how sincere she seemed about it.

Bridget looked at Helga and began to smile her friendly smile again and nodded, silently accepting Helga's apology. "Its okay kid, don't feel too bad, I been known to have my moments too." She smiled in amusement.

Helga smiled, relieved and actually chuckled a little, again astounding Arnold, who could only stare slightly at her as if he'd never seen her before.

"So, are you ready to order?" Bridget asked Helga politely, smiling at her and preparing to take her order.

"You bet your fanny, toots," Helga said smiling in good humor and turning back to give Arnold a glance, raising a bemused eyebrow. "You know Arnold; you look just like one of those fish in that tank. Close your mouth, it's very unattractive you know."

Arnold felt himself blush as both girls smiled at him. "Oh, err, s-sorry." Arnold said, still not quite believing what just happened. He looked back down at the menu trying to remember what he agreed on before being completely floored as Helga began her rather large order.

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave." -Mohandas K. Gandhi _


	14. Part Fourteen

"_Some people never say the words 'I love you' for like a child they're longing to be told"__ -Paul Simon_

**Part Fourteen: The Date (Part Two)**

Bridget returned a few moments later and set their plates down in front of them smiling.

"Here you go, kids, enjoy." She said happily, and then added, "Let me know if you need anything else." She glanced at Helga's plate and chuckled before she walked off to check on other customers.

Arnold understood Bridget's reasons for chuckling as he looked down at Helga's order in amazement. On the table before Helga was a large plate of shrimp, deviled crab, large baked potato with butter, a large helping of flounder, two rolls and some slaw. With these was a container of red sauce for the shrimp and a large glass of Yahoo soda with a bendy straw. Arnold himself only got some catfish and steak fries with a container of ketchup to go with it and also a regular glass of Yahoo soda.

"Wow Helga," he said to her blinking. "Are you going to be able to eat all of that?"

Helga looked at him and smiled her usual amused smile, then picked up her fork. "Slap a bib on me and stand back, _Arnold-o_!"

Arnold sat there and watched Helga as she began to eat. It was only when he saw her put a shrimp into her mouth that Arnold noticed something else that made him look twice. Helga G. Pataki, the terror of the fourth grade class and his personal tormentor, was actually wearing lipstick!

It was a sight that made Arnold smile a little. A tough girl like Helga, who always scoffed at Rhonda and the other girls for acting "all girly-girl" as she put it, and who played baseball as hard and as well as any one of the boys, was actually wearing makeup.

Noticing his stare and the small smile on his face, Helga looked up at him, and scowled her usual scowl. "What are you looking at, _football-head_?"

Arnold blinked and shook his head, still smiling, "Nothing really, it's just, um well, you really went through a whole lot of trouble for this date didn't you?"

"Huh? What do you mean?" Helga asked a little quickly. Those words sounded almost as if he knew she set him up in the cafeteria.

"Well, you're wearing makeup for starters," Arnold explained, glancing at her pink gloss-covered lips.

Helga blinked and felt her knees go weak, _He noticed something about me! Be still my beating heart! _"What about it? Criminy, can't a girl dress up a little when a guy asks her out?" Helga asked, brushing it off outwardly.

"Um, well yes, I suppose so," Arnold said thinking it over. Then, almost without realizing it, Arnold added, "It's just that, well, you _do_ look really nice tonight, Helga." When what he said registered in his football-shaped head, he blinked surprised at himself and blushed a little.

Helga blinked, this time she was the one surprised by his behavior and actually blushed slightly at the unexpected complement. Unlike earlier, when Arnold said the same thing, he'd only been trying to break the ice in an awkward moment. Now Helga could see that he was indeed being serious. Not only that, before he'd said "sort-of nice" but this time, he'd said "really nice" instead.

_One more surprise like this and I am going to faint, _Helga thought giddily.

"Um, well I . . . uh thanks," Helga said, looking down at her plate, then back into his gaze.

Arnold blinked again. For a moment there, he thought he saw—it couldn't have been, but he realized that he'd actually seen it. Helga was blushing. _She actually blushed over something I said? Helga Pataki?! This is too weird._ He thought to himself shaking his head in amazement as he began to eat his fish, a small smile on his face. Helga smiled a little also and resumed her enjoyment of her dinner.

* * *

On the other side of the large fish tank, Gerald and Phoebe sat, both of them trying to look like just another young couple there for dinner. Gerald had his face in a menu pretending to read it while he looked through the fish and the plants in the tank trying to see his best friend and Helga Pataki. He could barely see them. He glanced up at Phoebe, who was also looking through the tank.

"Can you make out what they are doing?" Gerald asked her, hoping her view was less obstructed. "Man, I wish we'd gotten better seats than these."

Phoebe looked into the tank and seemed to adjust her glasses to look better. The gesture somehow made her look even smarter than Gerald knew she was and it made him smile slightly for some odd reason.

"Well, this is interesting," She said as she squinted into the fish tank. "It appears that both of them are consuming dinner and engaging in small talk and that neither of them are displaying any sort-of combative attitude."

Gerald's eyebrows rose. "You mean neither of them are arguing? Not even Helga?"

Phoebe looked at Gerald and adjusted her glasses again "Precisely. Indeed, they appear to be getting along somewhat better than their previous behavior outside of Helga's home."

The dark-skinned boy shook his head in wonder. "Man, oh man, this is so strange. I mean, Arnold and Helga on a date is weird enough, but both of them getting along? Now that's definitely different."

The small Asian girl nodded and looked at Gerald. "I must confess that I too find this turn of events most interesting considering their past history. I am however quite pleased that they appear to have set their differences aside and are making an effort to get along on their date."

Phoebe looked at the table a moment, then she smiled. "You know, it is rather pleasant to be here with you like this, Gerald." A small hint of a blush could be seen on her cheeks.

Gerald felt his own cheeks redden slightly. "Yeah, um . . . it's very nice." He smiled and said, "It's a lot like, um, were on a date ourselves, huh Phoebe?"

"What?" Phoebe asked, blushing more. "Oh um . . . well technically we . . ." She blinked and smiled shyly. "I guess we can enjoy ourselves as well as observe Arnold and Helga."

Gerald grinned widely.

Then their own orders were brought over by a redheaded waitress whose name tag read "Jenny" and began to eat.

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_Love is friendship set to music." -E. Joseph Crossmann _


	15. Part Fifteen

"_Who so loves believes the impossible." __Elizabeth Barrett Browning_

**Part Fifteen: The Date (Part Three)**

Arnold found himself quite surprised that Helga actually managed to finish her rather large dinner. She sat back in her chair smiling triumphantly. Her eyes were closed. Then she let out a small belch and covered her mouth smiling.

Bridget returned and blinked looking at the empty plates. "Crikey, you must have really been hungry then?" She asked Helga.

"Yeah, that really hit the spot, toots. Thanks for the service." Helga said smiling.

"Could I interest either of you in a desert?" The waitress asked them in her Australian accent with a small smile.

Helga looked at Arnold and shook her head. Arnold nodded and said, "No thanks, I don't think we could eat another bite anyhow. We'd like to pay our bill now."

Bridget nodded and took out a pink slip of paper and handed it to Arnold. "Here you go."

Arnold looked down at the price listed below: 17.86. He pulled out a twenty and laid it on the table, smiling. "Keep the change, and thank you for your service, Bridget."

The young waitress smiled and said, "Thank you, mate." She turned to Helga, "You kids have a good night"

Helga actually nodded as she stood up and said, "Thank you." The waitress smiled and nodded her head at Helga. Arnold watched smiling as he stood also.

Together, both of the nine year olds made their way outside into the dark of the night. Overhead the street lights were already on.

Helga looked over at Arnold and asked, "So, what's next on the agenda, Arnold-o?"

Arnold thought for a moment, trying to determine what else he could do on their date. So far, he was moderately happy at how things are going. Then an idea came to him. "Well, how about a movie?" He suggested.

She smiled, "I could go for that. What's playing?"

Thinking for a moment, Arnold said "I heard that Evil Twin 4 was playing down at the theater."

Helga glanced over at him, raising her eyebrow. "Evil Twin 4?"

Arnold winced and realized that he just made a mistake. A horror movie was probably not the best suggestion for a date with a girl. A romantic movie or something with humor certainly, but not a scary movie.

"Oh well, it was just a suggestion," he said quickly, trying to cover his mistake.

"Sounds like a plan," Helga said grinning.

Arnold turned and blinked. "Really? You want to see that kind of movie on a—a date?" He still found it hard to say that he was on an official date with Helga Pataki.

Helga raised an eyebrow. "Are you kidding? You think I want to go watch some stupid romantic comedy with some bubble-headed bimbo playing the lead when I could see a good scary movie?" She snorted, "Please, no contest!"

Smiling pleased that he'd guessed right after all, Arnold nodded, "Okay then, lets go." They turned away toward the direction of the movie theater.

* * *

Not far behind them, Gerald and Phoebe emerged from the restaurant.

"There they go," Phoebe said, pointing in the direction they were turning up the street.

Off in the distance, Gerald saw them turn the corner and he took Phoebe's hand. This made him blush even as he said, "Come on, let's follow them."

"Coming," Phoebe replied singingly as she too blushed from the warmth of Gerald's hand over her own. The two of them continued to follow Arnold and Helga at a distance.

* * *

The two blondes arrived at the movie theater about fifteen minutes later. Arnold went up to the ticket window and got two tickets to the next showing of the movie, which was to take place in about ten minutes. He gave Helga her ticket, her fingers brushing up against his own. For a moment there, he must have been imagining it, but he thought he saw her smile a little. Then, as if she was aware of his scrutiny, Helga's face returned to its usual scowl. Arnold shook his head.

They went inside and Arnold saw her glance over at the snack bar.

"Would you like something for the movie, Helga?" He asked tentatively.

Helga looked at the overhead selection and thought for a moment. "I'll take some popcorn, a large yahoo, and a box of lemon drops."

Arnold smiled at the selection. It was a good choice. He turned to the teenage boy behind the counter who looked as if he could really use some acne medicine. "I'll take two large yahoo sodas, two medium popcorns, a box of lemon drops, and a box of ice cream nuggets."

The boy then asked, in a scratchy voice, "Would you prefer our super-large tub? It's only a dollar more and it comes with free refills."

Arnold looked over at Helga. "Um, do you mind sharing a large tub of popcorn?"

Helga actually smiled at the idea of sharing the same popcorn as Arnold, actually eating popcorn he could have touched with his perfect fingers . . . Outwardly she sighed, "Well, I guess it wouldn't kill me, _hair-boy_."

Arnold nodded to the boy. "We'll take it."

The guy looked at the total and said, "That will be, 15.60, sir."

Nodding, Arnold reached into his pocket to get the money, when Helga once again surprised him. "I'll get this one," Helga said, removing a twenty from her own pocket. She knew that she was still teasing him and using those nicknames for him. Even though he seemed to be ignoring them, she could tell it annoyed him. So Helga decided to be noble and help pay.

Arnold felt a little self-conscious about that. After all he was the guy and they_ were_ on a date after all, even if he didn't plan on it. "Helga, you don't have to . . ." he began.

Helga turned and snorted at him, "Look Arnold, I'm a modern girl. I don't need you to pay for everything, _bucko_." Then she added, with her usual bossy voice, "Now go and find us some seats before all the good one are taken." _No need to be_ too_ nice about it,_ Helga thought with a small smile she kept to herself.

Blinking again, Arnold nodded and said, "Sure."

He walked into the theater, carrying the drinks and the candy. He found some really good seats near the middle center of the theater. The slightly dim lights were still on inside and he could see several kids his own age in groups of five or more, some grownups with kids, and even a few teenage couples near the left side. Some of the latter were hardly aware of their surroundings, but were instead kissing with an intensity that made Arnold blink and look away embarrassed. He was still young and the idea of being that . . . well close . . . to a member of the opposite sex, let alone kissing a girl, sent goose bumps along his arms and made his face go red.

_But you have been kissed by Helga three different times,_ football-head_,_ that small Helga voice in his mind spoke up.

Abruptly, Arnold remembered those occasions quite well. This thought, if possible, made him blush more realizing that he was now on an impromptu date with the same girl. His childhood arch nemesis and the girl who confessed her love for him several months ago . . .

He again glanced over at one of the teenage couples, who were totally lost in each other, looking into the other's eyes and then kissing.

"There you are," Helga's voice said to him from his other side.

Arnold turned his head quickly to face her, hoping that Helga couldn't see him blushing. Helga was looking at him and said, raising one side of her unibrow, "Criminy, Arnold. Are you going to keep spacing out on me all night?" She passed him the super-large tub of popcorn, which he took and sat in his lap.

Helga sat down right next to him, her arm brushing up against his. She blushed a little, hoping that in the dim lighting he wouldn't see.

Arnold didn't lower the arm rest between them, but instead placed the large tub of popcorn between them so they could both get to it easily. They sat their drinks in the holders on the other armrests and placed their candies in their own laps.

* * *

Not far behind them, Gerald and Phoebe entered the theater, doing their best to not draw attention as they sat near the right side corner in the back where there were shadows. They had two drinks and their own large tub of popcorn, which they too sat between them.

"There they are," Gerald said nodding over to them.

"They appear to be getting along quite well together." Phoebe smiled a very pleased smile.

"Hmm, you know, I hate to say this, but they really are," Gerald said, inclining his head. His eyes narrowed with suspicion wondering what it was Helga was up to.

Phoebe nodded a little as she began to much on her own popcorn. She glanced over at Gerald and smiled a little. Almost as if he could feel her smiling at him, he turned and looked at her, blushing a little and smiled a small flirty smile that too made her blush a little bit.

The dim lights in the theater began to turn off and the screen came abruptly to life.

Arnold put his hand in the popcorn bowl as the creepy soundtrack came on and grabbed a handful of popcorn. He looked over to see Helga take a sip of her drink, her lipstick-covered mouth lightly covering the bendy-straw. He glanced over at him and Arnold looked away abruptly.

Helga blinked; she could have sworn that Arnold was looking at her a moment ago. She took a handful of popcorn and smiled at the idea of her Arnold watching her. She glanced back up to see the title of the movie appear on the large screen. It read: Evil Twin 4: The Sister of Darkness.

About fifteen minutes into the movie, Arnold opened his box of ice cream nuggets, his favorite candy for viewing movies. He looked at it a moment, abruptly remembering the dream he had about visiting his cousin Arnie a couple months ago. He glanced at Helga again, who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the movie with rapt attention as she munched on her own lemon drops. So far, Helga had been very pleasant company and his worst case scenarios about what might happen on this date were not coming true.

Arnold smiled to himself thinking,_ I think that—can it be? I think I'm actually enjoying this date._

Helga seemed to once again feel his eyes on her and turned to look at him, frowning slightly and a little nervous. "What? What is it?"

He shook his head trying to come up with an explanation. Then it hit him. He raised his box of candy and asked, "Um, would you like an ice cream nugget, Helga?" A part of him not really believing he'd just asked.

If that surprised him, it certainly came as a surprise to Helga whose eyes widened slightly._ He's offering to share his candy with me?! I don't believe it! Somebody pinch me, I think I'm dreaming! _

"Um, Helga?" Arnold asked a little worried because she seemed to be looking at him strangely._ Maybe I caught her off guard?_ He kind-of smiled at the thought.

She blinked and her gaze came back into focus. "Huh? What? Oh um, yes. Err, thanks foot- um Arnold." She amended the last part as she reached into the box and took one of the chocolate-covered balls and put it into her mouth.

Arnold smiled and nodded taking one for himself as he turned back to the screen._ Whew, that was close._

It was Helga's turn to look at Arnold idly as she reached into the large tub and took out another handful of popcorn. She was still in shock over what just happened.

A scream from the screen made her turn back abruptly as one of the teenage girls was running for her life from the evil twin. Helga smiled slightly seeing that the intended victim was some freckle-faced teenage air-head who closely resembled Lila.

Helga reached into the tub to grab another handful of popcorn and abruptly her fingers brushed against Arnold's. Arnold also felt her fingers brush against his own. Both of them pulled their hands away abruptly and looked at one another a moment, both of them looking very awkward. They turned their heads away a moment, both muttering apologies and blushing brightly in the darkness.

_**To Be Continued . . . .**_

"_How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved!" Sigmund Freud _


	16. Part Sixteen

"_Love is patient and kind._

_Love is not jealous or rude._

_Love does not insist upon its own way,_

_it is not irritable or resentful,_

_it does not rejoice at wrong,_

_but rejoices at the right._

_Love bears all things,_

_believes all things,_

_hopes all things,_

_endures all things._

_Love never ends."_

_-1 Corinthians 13:4-8_

**Part Sixteen: Fairs, Photos, Fountains . . . And a Kiss!**

The two blonde kids emerged from the movie theater some time later, both laughing and talking about the movie that they just watched together.

"Oh, man, can you believe that ending?" Helga said, clutching her stomach and laughing very hard. "I mean the way that evil twin lost his head?"

"Yeah," Arnold said, chuckling. "Literally." This sent Helga into another fit to giggles.

Arnold looked at her again as she laughed about the movie's twist ending, amazed as how normal and relaxed Helga seemed now as opposed to her usual behavior. By this point in the evening, he'd fully expected to be well on his way into fighting with Helga for some reason or another. The lack of any such confrontation or argument from Helga had clearly thrown Arnold off his guard. Indeed, he was having such a good time with her, and that surprised him to no end.

A moment later, Arnold was once again at a loss when Helga turned to him and said, "So, what's next, Arnold?"

Stopping for a moment, Arnold looked at his watch and saw that it was not all that late. A part of him said that he should call it a night. After all he'd taken her to dinner and to a movie. That's all that most dates usually consist of, and his obligation was over. Also, that same part of his mind was still worried about what might happen eventually if he and Helga stay together for too long. Another fight was inevitable. It has to be, right?

_So how come it hasn't happened yet, football-head?_ The other part of his mind spoke up again using Helga's voice. _So far everything has been really good, you have to admit that._

Well, aside from that small incident earlier at the restaurant, things had been going very well. Arnold was afraid that going on now might jinx his run of good luck with Helga.

Then he looked over at Helga and saw she was waiting for an answer. For once, Arnold didn't see any sign of the impatience that he was used to seeing from her. The lack of any hostile attitude caused him to make up his mind to keep going on with the date. The only trouble was he had no idea what he wanted to do next.

"Well, I'm not really sure what to do now," Arnold told her truthfully. Then he asked, "Is there anything else you wanted to do tonight?"

Helga blinked a little caught off guard. She hadn't been expecting to come up with any ideas for herself. Indeed she rather thought that at this point, Arnold would be trying to weasel his way out of things by now, after all dinner and a movie were standard date priorities that had already been met.

_Maybe . . . dare I think it . . . maybe Arnold actually wants to keep the date going? Maybe he's starting to really_ like _hanging out with me?_ She caught herself before she smiled in case Arnold saw her thoughts somehow.

After a moment of thought, Helga said, "Well, I did hear about the Late Spring Fair that they were having over at Tina Park."

Arnold had forgotten all about the Late Spring Fair that came to the city. Now that he thought about it, the fair sounded like one more little date idea. He nodded, "Okay, the fair it is."

Together both of them began walking down the street. They turned the corner just before Gerald and Phoebe emerged from the theater holding hands and smiling happily.

"Man that was a good movie wasn't it?" Gerald asked her smiling.

"Yes, I quite concur, Gerald, the ending was indeed suspenseful," Phoebe agreed, smiling as well.

"Oh well, that was the good part," Gerald said with a grin. Indeed it had been the suspense that caused Phoebe to grab hold of his arm and bury her head into his chest, which Gerald certainly hadn't minded at all.

Phoebe, as if sensing his thoughts blushed a little in the moonlight.

Gerald blinked and looked around, "Wait a minute, what happened to Arnold and Helga?"

Looking around also, Phoebe suddenly remembered why they were out together in the first place. "Oh my, I think we've lost them."

"Oh man that's just great. My best friend is all alone now with Helga Pataki of all people!"

Phoebe frowned a little and said, "Gerald, may I point out that so far, Helga has displayed acceptable behavior, despite our worries. I find it highly improbable that she would start to lose her composure at this point in the evening."

Gerald on the other hand was not so optimistic. "So far, but how long can that last? I mean Helga G. Pataki isn't exactly the most easy to get along with people in the world."

Despite the fact that Phoebe agreed with his assessment, she felt the need to stand up for her best friend. "Be that as it may, Gerald, but I know that Helga can indeed be a very good person deep down when given a chance. Perhaps she is simply choosing to be on her best behavior to show Arnold that she can be more than just the bully image that she's cultivated over the years?"

Gerald looked at her and said, "Um Phoebe, even if that is true, why on earth would Helga_ want_ to, or even care what Arnold thinks about her image?"

Phoebe closed her mouth, realizing that she was saying too much. Gerald was not so naive and might pick up on the meaning of her words. If he did, then Helga's secret might very well be exposed.

"Oh, well Helga might simply be more relaxed when she doesn't have to keep up her reputation at school." Phoebe said quickly to cover up her previous words, then added, "I know Helga, and she isn't always as angry, or confrontational as she is normally displays."

Gerald still looked doubtful of this, but instead of arguing, he said, "Anyway, we still better find out where they went. Maybe they went home?"

"That is possible; perhaps we should go and inquire if they are at home?"

"Or, we could just go to their houses and see if they are there," Gerald added.

Phoebe smiled and sighed. She smiled more and then blushed a little when Gerald took her hand again. Gerald grinned and blushed as well. Together the two of them went off to search for their missing best friends.

* * *

About fifteen minutes later, Arnold and Helga arrived at Tina Park. Both of them stood there at the entrance and grinned at the sight of the fair before them. It wasn't a particular big fair, just a small set up with about a dozen rides and some booths with prize games. A large lighted Ferris Wheel towered over everything. Red, white, and green lights twinkled all over the place.

"Pretty cool," Helga said smiling at one of the faster rides nearby.

"Yeah," Arnold agreed, nodding. "Looks like a lot fun."

"Well, what the heck are we just standing around here for, I wanna have fun," Helga said, grabbing Arnold's hand and pulling him behind her. Arnold smiled and picked up the pace with her to the ticket booth, where a short, teenage girl wearing all black, looked at them unsmiling and looking extremely bored. She had black lipstick, black eye shadow and even black nail polish on her long fingernails. In her left nostril was a small silver nose ring.

Arnold looked at the ride ticket prices and took out some money. "A set of fifty tickets please." Wordlessly, the Goth girl rolled out fifty and slid them through the slot in the bottom of the window as Arnold slid the money inside to her.

"Thanks," Arnold muttered being friendly.

"Yeah thanks, oh and I love the nose ring by the way, toots," Helga added as an afterthought as they were leaving. Despite himself, Arnold couldn't help but chuckle a little at the comment. Helga glanced at him chucking over something she'd said and felt her stomach do flip flops.

"So, what would you like to ride first, Helga?"

She looked around and said, "Oh I don't know, something really fast." Finally Helga's eyes managed to make their way over to a ride called: "The Starship 3000." It looked on the outside like a spaceship and it was spinning like a top really fast. Inside of it people were screaming loudly. Helga grinned, "That looks like it might be fun and there don't seem to be too many people in line."

Arnold followed her gaze and smiled brightly. "Yeah, let's do that one first."

Together they went over to the line. As they stood there, the ride began to slow down and then stop. A hatch on the ride opened and out of the ride came about two dozen people, all of whom looked a little queasy. One teenage girl in particular looked green.

"Cool," Helga muttered grinning.

The line began to move forward. Arnold handed some tickets to the ride's operator, a teenage boy who could definitely have used more acne medicine than the boy in the movie theater had. Together they climbed into the ride.

The inside was full of about thirty or so padded rests against the round interior walls. Several people were already in position leaning back against them. Arnold went over and rested against one of them and Helga leaned against the one on his left side.

The doorway closed and several dozen multicolored lights inside flashed and some rock music played loudly from speakers set in the middle of the ride. An alarm bell rang out and then it began to rotate, slowly at first then it picked up speed. Both of them felt their bodies being pulled back by the g-forces and they began to feel lightheaded and ticklish in their stomach. They both laughed and yelled from the thrill of the ride.

They laughed so much they almost didn't notice when the ride finally moved so fast it pulled them against the pads where they couldn't even lift their heads. This cause their hands to touch held against each other by the g-forces.

Arnold glanced over at her and Helga looked back at him, still smiling over the ride, or at least Arnold tried to tell himself that the blood rushing to his head was the reason he felt lightheaded when her hand touched his. He found himself actually not minding holding her hand at all and closed his fingers around it. Helga felt like swooning.

Then gradually, the ride began to slow down again and both of them were able to move. Finally the ride came to a stop and Helga tried to stand up, but swayed slightly from the light-headed feeling had.

"Helga? Are you all right?" Arnold asked suddenly concerned and squeezing her hand slightly.

"J-just a little dizzy, that's all," Helga said, bringing her bandaged hand to her forehead. Then she smiled and said, "Hey, let's ride this one again!"

Arnold laughed and said, "We can again later. It's my turn to pick and right now I wanna ride in something I can sit in."

Nodding Helga laughed in agreement. "Lead the way, _Arnold-o_."

Together they both exited the ride and walked around the fair, only barely aware of the fact that they were still holding hands. Upon realizing that they were, neither of them made a big deal of it outwardly. In their minds was another matter.

Helga smiled more as she thought; _Arnold is actually holding my hand voluntarily! I think I'm going to faint! _She had to fight back the giggle that came to her throat then.

Arnold thought to himself,_ I can't believe I'm holding her hand . . . but it doesn't feel so bad to do so. It feels, well, sorta good actually._ He was a little surprised that he felt that way about Helga Pataki. He glanced at her face and saw the far away look she seemed to have, her blue eyes were sparking with a happiness he rarely ever saw from her . . . except in his dreams.

That last revelation brought Arnold to a sudden halt. Helga stopped when he did and looked at him seeing a thoughtful look on his face. He was blinking. "Arnold? What is it?"

He blinked once more coming back into focus and quickly covered up his momentary lapse by saying, "N-nothing, I just saw what I wanted do next." He quickly pointed over to the bumper cars.

Helga wasn't certain why, but she had the feeling Arnold didn't tell her the whole story then. Instead of pressing the issue like she normally would have, she looked over at the bumper cars and grinned. "Hey that's not such a bad idea." Now she smirked and added playfully, "It'll give me a chance to kick your scrawny butt when I run you into the wall,_ Arnold-o_."

Arnold responded with a playful smirk of his own and added, "In your dreams, Helga."

"Oh get real, _football-head_, I can outrace you any day of the week!" She said raising one side of her unibrow.

Arnold smiled and narrowed his half-lidded eyes, "You're on!"

Laughing together, both of them made their way over to the bumper cars, smiling and still holding hands.

For the next hour, Arnold and Helga continued to have fun on all the rides. They rode the bumper cars. As promised, Helga did indeed run Arnold into the wall, though Arnold himself managed to get it a few great hits of his own. Both of them laughing the whole time. After that they rode the Merry Go Round and the Ferris Wheel, on which they both looked at the city pointing out landmarks and smiling. Also another ride called "The Scrambler" which went really fast. Helga laughed as she almost crushed Arnold on that ride since he was sitting closer to the end where the force was propelling them. Arnold laughed about it after they got off the ride, despite how swore that side now felt. Finally they went back to the "Starship 3000" and again rode it happily.

The last thing they did was enter the House of Mirrors with their last tickets. They walked into the maze of mirrors laughing at the strange way their reflections made them look different. At one, Helga giggled when she saw Arnold's reflection of him with a normal-sized head rather than his football-shaped one. "Definitely an improvement," she joked with her usual smirk.

Instead of being insulted, Arnold simply smiled and got even. He looked into a mirror of himself as tall as Stinky and said, "Now this makes me look weird." He looked in another that had him as fat as Harold. "This one is weirder." Then he looked at Helga and said, "Well, this is the weirdest one." He grinned mischievously at her delayed reaction of blinking and scowling.

"Why you little _football-headed_ twerp!" She said laughing a little and grabbing his small blue cap off of his head.

"Hey! Not the hat!" Arnold yelled laughing now for some reason too as he chased Helga through the maze.

A few minutes later as they exited the House of Mirrors laughing happily, they heard a female voice calling to them. They stopped and looked over to see a red-haired freckled teenager with a camera smiling at them. "Wanna have your pictures taken? Two pictures for three dollars, you can't ask for a better deal than that can you?"

Arnold looked at Helga and asked, "Would you like a picture, Helga? We can keep one each to remember this night?" He smiled a little thinking that what he said sounded a little . . . well sappy. However, if Helga thought of it in those terms, then she was hiding it very well when she looked at him and nodded, "I'd like that, Arnold." Deep down, her heart was doing flip flops again over the idea of having a picture for herself over this glorious night with Arnold.

"Great," the teen told them. "Now move closer together you two, that's it. Young man, put your arm around her, it'll look great, trust me."

Arnold blinked and looked at Helga a little worried she might get mad. Despite the good time they'd been having, he still had worries about her. She looked at him, pretending to be indifferent and shrugged moving closer. As Arnold put his arm around her waist, she blushed and shuddered a little. Arnold felt it, blinked and glanced over out of the corner of his eye and saw her smile. He smiled a little as well.

"Perfect! Hold that pose!" The girl told them. Arnold turned his eyes back toward the camera lady, the smile still on his face as she took two quick pictures, the flashes almost made Arnold wince. "Wonderful, I'll develop these quickly and have them back to you in a moment." She took her camera over to a nearby booth.

Arnold nodded and turned back to Helga, taking his arm away and saying. "You wanna go sit down somewhere and rest while we wait?" He noticed that she was beginning to look tired.

Helga nodded, felling a bit tired and looked over at the water fountain nearby. "Yeah, my feet are killing me. Let's go over there."

Nodding, Arnold helped her over to the fountain and sat her down smiling. Then he glanced over and saw a vendor selling snacks. He turned back to her and asked, "Would you like something to snack on?"

Helga looked at him and said, "A corn dog with some mustard and a Yahoo soda if they have it."

Arnold nodded again and said, "Wait here in case that lady comes back with the pictures." He put his hand on her shoulder without thinking, "I'll be right back."

Helga smirked, "Yeah that's what victim number four in that horror movie said too, Arnold." He smiled and rolled his eyes and walked off to the vendor.

As he went over there, Arnold looked back at Helga a moment. He saw her sitting sideways on the edge of the stone fountain and looking at him smiling. He turned back to the task at hand, still unable to believe what was happening here. He was at a fair with Helga G. Pataki, the girl who terrorized their entire class of friends for as long as he could remember, and he was having fun. Laughing at her jokes and even teasing her back slightly. For some reason, only now did the last of the anxiety and wariness he'd had since starting out on this date actually disappear all together.

He glanced back once more, to see her sitting with her back to him, her feet in the fountain water and looking very happy just sitting there looking at the water. Arnold smiled now, no longer denying it. He was indeed having a good time with Helga.

As she watched Arnold turn away and head toward the food vendor, Helga took off her sandals and put her feet into the mercifully cool fountain water. She'd walked a long time tonight and her feet felt really sore.

Now that her feet were relaxing in the water, Helga pulled out her golden locket, the glass was still cracked, and she smiled at the picture of the beautiful blonde boy gazing up at her from inside.

"Oh Arnold, I can't believe what a wonderful time I'm having tonight with you, side by side, actually enjoying each other's company, instead of the cruel, sadistic tongue-lashings that I inflict upon you my football-headed angel." She sighed and pulled the locket close to her heart, closing her eyes happily.

"Um, miss?"

Helga froze a moment and her eyes widened. She turned around quickly and stuffed the locket somewhat hastily back inside her shirt underneath, not having enough time to put it back in its place properly.

The girl who'd taken their pictures stood there, smiling pleased at her. "Here are your photos. That will be three dollars please."

Helga took out some of her own money and gave her some bills. "Oh, um here toots, and keep the change." She'd given the older girl an extra dollar, being uncharacteristically generous today because of her extremely good mood.

The girl smiled at her and said, "Thank you, ma'am." Then she grinned and said, "They came out very well. I took a lot of good ones tonight, but I do believe you two are the cutest couple I've taken this evening."

Helga felt herself blushing and nodding back, "Um, thanks."

The teen nodded and said, "My pleasure." With that she turned to find another couple who wanted their photos taken together.

The moment she left, Helga turned back toward the water and looked down at the pictures in her hand. She felt her face split into a huge grin seeing the photos. Both of them were exactly the same, Arnold with his arm around Helga's waist, both of them smiling happily next to one another.

_This is a dream, a beautiful dream! _Helga thought happily. _One I never want to wake up from! _She held the pictures close to her heart as she'd done with the locket moments before and sighed.

Then all of a sudden, she felt something cold touching both of her cheeks and she opened her eyes and let out a small surprised yell. She jumped to her feet and turned quickly to see Arnold holding two bottles of Yahoo soda in his hands, along with a small brown paper bag underneath his arm, laughing at Helga's reaction.

She was so shocked by what happened that she failed to notice that her locket fell out from its place underneath her shirt and into the fountain with a small, almost soundless splash that was lost in the waves.

Helga snorted, a little annoyed at being interrupted in the middle of her thoughts and the sudden shock of cold that she still felt on her face. "Hey, that was cold, _football-head_!"

Arnold smiled at her. "Relaxing in the water, I see? Are your feet sore?"

Relaxing a little, and smiling a bit at his concern for her, Helga nodded, "Just a little, but the cool water helped them. The cold on my face I could do without." She sat down and said, "So where's my corn dog?"

"Oh, um, here. I got one too, and the mustard," Arnold said setting the Yahoo soda bottles down and then sitting down facing her. She turned slightly to face him, her feet still in the water. Arnold opened the paper bag and pulled out a single plastic container of mustard, which he took the lid off of and two of those long corn dogs that came with every fair. He set the mustard container down between them.

Helga set the pictures down and rubbed her hands together as she took one of the corn dogs Arnold offered her by the stick and dipped the end of it in the mustard and began to chow down.

Arnold noticed the pictures as he dipped his own corn dog in the same mustard, which he decided to share with her. He picked one of them up and looked at it taking in the sight of the two of them smiling next to one another that closely. They looked just like a normal boy and girl couple like that.

That idea made Arnold think a moment._ A couple? Me and Helga?_ He glanced up at Helga and noticed her stare at him in mid-chew, a little mustard on her lower lip on her lipstick. Being the gentleman he was, Arnold took a paper towel and reaching over, wiped the mustard gently from her face. She blinked at what he was doing, and he did too when he remembered whom he was with. They both suddenly turned their eyes away, a little shyly.

"Hey, these turned out pretty good, huh?" He said looking back up at her nervously, holding up the picture he held.

"Um, yeah, I guess so," Helga said also nervously. Then she said, "Hey, you wanna have that one, something to remember this night by?"

Arnold nodded and looked down at the picture in his hands again. He thought about what Helga said just then about remembering this night and said, "You know Helga, I don't think I could ever forget tonight. I'm having such a good time with you."

"You are?" Helga asked, her eyes widening a little and her breath seemed to come to her quicker. Inside her chest her heart was thumping a mile a minute. She grinned and said, "Me too, Arnold."

Arnold dipped his corn dog again into the mustard and took a bite looking at Helga, who swallowed down the last of her own corn dog with some soda. She looked so happy and normal, as opposed to how she usually acted in school.

His mind went back to his recent dreams of Helga. He thought about how gentle and normal she seemed compared to the Helga who threw spit wads at him and sprayed water from the fountain in his face at school. The same girl who called him nicknames and teased him constantly. Looking back at Helga, sitting there with her feet resting in the water fountain, dressed up on a date and wearing lipstick, gazing intently at the picture in her hands. The way she looked right now reminded him of his dreams, so peaceful and nice. For some reason, Arnold felt his own heart suddenly beating faster.

He glanced down at her bandaged left hand and felt an instant pang of guilt, remembering the real reasons for this date. For some reason, Arnold felt the need to tell her the truth.

"Helga?"

She looked over at him, setting the picture aside for the moment. "Yeah, Arnold?"

"Um, I have some that I . . . well that I need to tell you," He said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

Helga blinked and saw how nervous he was. Suddenly, her mind was filled with a pleasant daydream of Arnold telling her right then and there that he'd fallen in love with her and wanted to be her boyfriend. It only took a moment then she blinked and forcefully brought herself back to reality and to her beloved.

Outwardly, Helga said, "Sure, what's on your mind?"

Arnold looked down a moment, took a breath and began. "Helga, I have a confession to make. I didn't really want to come on a date with you. Me and Gerald were talking about . . ." he paused, wondering if it would be a good idea to tell Helga he'd had more than one dream about her. He continued, "Well mostly about what happened yesterday on the kickball field. Rhonda overheard us and misinterpreted what we said and then you came in and she told you and that's how we ended up on this date together. I thought about calling you to cancel this date, but then I remembered what you did yesterday and how you got hurt, I felt really bad and wanted to make it up to you."

Helga looked at him and her face fell slightly, slightly out of sadness, but also out of surprise that Arnold told her the truth just then. Not really the confession that she'd hoped for. She already knew that he was prompted her by guilt rather than anything else, but she'd hoped deep down that things would change once they had the date.

"Why are you telling me this now, Arnold?"

In many ways, Arnold had been expecting Helga to blow her stack right now, call him her usual names, or even shove him into the fountain. What he didn't expect was the almost sad look on her face. It surprised him yet again. Looking at her, he thought, _Could all of this have meant more to her than I thought?_

He had to answer her, but now he was more afraid of making her sadder. But he already knew he had to tell her the truth, so he did. "I wanted to be honest with you because—well when we started it, I was really worried about what might happen, but when we started having fun, I realized that, well . . ."

Hope sprang inside Helga again and she looked at him, "Yes, Arnold?"

Arnold rubbed his left arm and said, "Well . . . I realized that, I was enjoying this date. I've had such a good time with you tonight, Helga." He looked back up at her and smiled his small gentle smile to her. "I've never had such a good time on a date with a girl before."

Helga felt like fainting now, and no amount of acting was enough to cover the grin that spread over her face at that moment. "Really?"

He nodded and said, "You're a lot of fun to be around, Helga. When you aren't picking on me and calling me names that is."

She looked at him as if studying him and nodded. "Thank you, Arnold. And I also wanted to say that . . . well . . ." Now she rubbed the back of her neck nervously and continued "I've had a really unforgettable time with you too, Arnold. And I couldn't think of anyone that I would rather have spent it with." She seemed to realize what she said and bit her bottom lip to keep from making a total fool out of herself.

Arnold looked at her a moment, wondering if she had been kidding, but she seems so sincere, even nervous around him. _Helga Pataki nervous? Of Me!_ He thought about it and it seemed so ludicrous, so impossible, and yet, if she really did mean what she said . . .

Arnold was brought out of these thoughts when he saw Helga yawning. Now that he thought about it, they had been out for a long time tonight and she was probably a bit tired. He felt somewhat tired also. "Um, we better go home now, it's getting pretty late."

She nodded, reluctant to end this date, but she did feel really tired. "Yeah, I guess time flies when you're having fun." Helga smiled a little.

Arnold thought about her comment and smiled. _Yeah, when you're having fun._

After Helga pulled her feet out of the water and put her sandals back on, Arnold helped her up and they left the fair headed toward Helga's home.

Left behind in the fountain, the broken locket lay there shimmering in the lights of the fair, until a pale white hand reached in and pulled it out. A moment later, both the hand and the locket were gone.

* * *

Gerald and Phoebe meet back together at the stoop that they'd meet earlier at near Helga's home. Both of them looked tired. They'd searched all over for their best friends but couldn't find them.

"Any luck?" Gerald asked her, looking very concerned.

"I'm afraid not," Phoebe answered sadly. "Perhaps something bad has happened to them?"

"I don't know," Gerald didn't know what to think. He was certain that Arnold would have gotten away from Helga the moment the dinner and movie were done. Did he go somewhere else with Helga? If so then where?

Then, almost as if he'd called them through his own thoughts, he saw them turning the corner across the street headed toward Helga's stoop.

"There they are," Gerald said to Phoebe, who quickly turned and smiled.

"Oh thank goodness," she muttered happily.

"Quick, get down," Gerald said, ducking behind the garbage cans and taking Phoebe's hand and pulling her down also. He continued to hold her hand as they sat there on their knees watching the two blondes made their way to the stoop across the street. Phoebe smiled to herself, both from seeing Helga look so happy and the fact Gerald was holding her hand.

* * *

Both Arnold and Helga had been walking in silence the whole way to Helga's house. Both of them were too lost in their own thoughts to say too much. The events of the whole night played out in their minds along with their reactions to them.

For Helga, it was like a dream come true for her. Not only did she spend a really great evening with Arnold, but he said he'd had a good time! She knew she would have a whole notebook full of thoughts to write out when she got inside. That a photographic evidence of the whole thing in her shirt. She had every intention of putting that particular picture in her locket once she had it fixed. She glanced over at Arnold when they approached her stoop.

For Arnold, it had started out like the beginning of the longest night of his life. Ironically he found it to be among the best nights of his life, one he wasn't entirely certain he wanted to end now. He looked over at her as they'd walked home. She looked so pleasant in the light of the full moon and the street lights that he almost tripped once over a bad place in the sidewalk on the way. Helga even giggled when he did that, not laughed harshly like she usually did, but giggled. He smiled thinking about it.

Finally they stopped at Helga's stoop. Both of them turned to each other, both knowing that their little date was over, but neither of them wanting to leave.

"Well, thanks, Arnold, I had a really good time," Helga said. Being nice to Arnold seemed really easy now for some reason.

"Me too, Helga," he answered, smiling. "I can't believe how well we got along tonight."

"Yeah, wonders never cease," Helga said smiling back a little. Arnold nodded sharing her smile. They looked at one-another for a moment both feeling awkward. Neither of them wanting to be the one to step away but knowing they had to eventually.

Finally, Arnold said, "Well, I guess I better go now." He was about to turn to leave when Helga grabbed his right hand with her own. Arnold looked back at her confused.

Helga suddenly felt there was one more thing she had to do. There was nobody but her and Arnold around, and he did say he had a good time with her tonight. These things were enough to win over her usual fear and shy nervousness.

Before she could change her mind, she said to him, "Arnold, um since this is a date and all. I . . . um . . . well that is . . ." she felt herself faltering.

Arnold tilted his head and looked at her a moment. Was she trying to tell him something? "Yes Helga?" He smiled trying to help her feel better. "What is it?"

She looked at him and saw his smile. Helga suddenly found the strength to do what she wanted to do. She pulled him closely to her, leaned over and kissed him softly on the right cheek; her heart was running a marathon in her chest.

Arnold's eyes widened a little and he felt his heart beating hard in his chest as the warm, moist feeling of her lips against his cheek made his whole face turn red.

* * *

Behind the dumpster, Phoebe felt her mouth open widely and she put a hand over her mouth and chuckled amusingly. _Way to go, Helga!_ She thought to herself. Then she looked over at Gerald, and had to fight back a laugh at the look of total shock on his face. His mouth too was hanging open and his brown eyes were very wide indeed.

Feeling the same daring that Helga had, she leaned over and kissed Gerald on the cheek as well. He blinked and looked at her a moment. She giggled and he suddenly smiled at her too in a goofy way.

* * *

The whole kiss took only a moment and Helga, surprised by her own boldness pulled back and let go of Arnold's hand. She could see he was red and knew her face was red also. He was looking at her with a very odd look on his face. She'd left her lip prints on his face from her lipstick. For a moment she was worried that he was about to freak out on her, but then she saw a very goofy-looking smile cross his face and his eyes took on that dreamy half-lidded look she loved so well. Her heart leaped.

She raced up the stairs and opened the door. Turning back she said, "Goodnight, Arnold, see you at school tomorrow." She saw him wave to her, still looking at her with that goofy smile on his face and she closed the door and promptly fainted right there in the hallway.

Big Bob looked up from his paper and saw his youngest daughter, laying on her back in the hallway, passed out with a very huge grin on her face and smudged lipstick on her mouth. "I'm not even going to ask," he muttered and went back to the sports section.

Arnold looked up at the door as it closed and stared at it a moment, then he blinked and brought his hand up to his cheek, but didn't quite touch it, afraid that it would burn. His cheek felt warm already where she kissed it. He remembered the feeling of her lips against his cheek and he turned to walk home in a very goofy daze, his thoughts were full of fairs and movies, seafood and corn dogs. On his face was the outline of a pair of lips made with pink lipstick.

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_Love is letting go of fear." -Gerald G. Jampolsky _


	17. Part Seventeen

"_Between Hope and Fear, Love makes her home."_ _Ramon Lully_

**Part Seventeen: Arnold's Reflections**

"Arnold!"

Arnold didn't even hear the voice behind him calling out his name as he made his way, in something of a goofy sort-of daze, toward his home several blocks away. He was being guided toward his destination by pure instinct since his brain was racing a mile a minute over all of the events of the evening—especially that last one. He could still feel the spot on his right cheek almost throbbing where Helga's lips had gently touched it.

_She—she kissed me?_ Arnold blinked slightly as the thought formed itself into words inside his head. _She kissed me. Helga G. Pataki, actually kissed me?! At the end of a date?!_ He was still trying to accept the idea that this entire evening had actually happened for real. Was all of this real, or was it all a part of one of the weird dreams he'd been having about his arch nemesis lately?

Arnold took off his hat and pulled out the photo of him and Helga standing together at the fair, his arm around her waist, both of them smiling happily. There it was, in his hands, the proof that he and Helga went on a date and had a good time.

He felt his heart suddenly begin to beat faster for some reason. Just thinking about Helga right now made him feel so . . . happy? Arnold stopped and blinked at the idea, as if the idea of having any sort-of good time with Helga was still strange, despite the fact that it already happened.

Then there was that kiss.

I wasn't like it was the first time that Helga Pataki had ever kissed him. She had on three other occasions after all. Once during a school play, another time when they were acting in an episode of a television show, and the third time when she told him her secret on top of that building. The first two kisses had just been for acting, and the last one, well that one he was still trying to figure out.

_So, why was this kiss any different from those?_ Arnold asked himself, looking down at the photo in the light of the overhead streetlights. _I mean, other than the fact that she kissed me on the cheek rather than on the lips._

A small voice in the back of his mind, the one that sounded a lot like Helga herself, spoke up then._ Oh I don't know, Arnold-o, maybe it has something to do with the fact it was a date kiss and that you had a good time?_

True, he did have a good time taking Helga out to eat; at least he did after she apologized to that waitress. Then they went to that movie and shared a big bucket of popcorn and enjoyed a really good movie. Then finally, their little trip to the fair where they went on every ride, even played around slightly, and then enjoyed corn dogs and Yahoo soda at the fountain together afterwards.

_But still, I explained the truth about why we went out on that date to her,'_ he told the voice inside his mind. _I'm surprised that she didn't pound me, or try and drown me in the fountain for it. Instead, she told me that she had a good time and couldn't have spent it with anyone else . . ._

Arnold's thoughts trailed off as he remembered those words._ Wait a minute? She said that she _wanted _to spend time with me! _Again his heart started beating hard in his chest._ Why do I feel this way? Could it be that . . . ?_

"Hey, Arnold! Wait up!" A voice called out from behind him, cutting off Arnold's last thought. He turned to see Gerald rushing up to see him.

"Gerald? What are you doing here?" Arnold blinked, surprised to see his best friend out this time of night. His previous thoughts were replaced with curiosity.

Gerald paused when he got up to Arnold, blinked a moment then snickered.

"What is it? What's so funny?"

His friend smiled and said, "Oh, nothing much, it just looks like you have a really good time on your date." Then Gerald began laughing harder.

Arnold was confused and raised an eyebrow. "Gerald, I don't know what your talking about. What are you laughing about?"

Gerald smiled and then grabbed Arnold's arm pulling him over to the large shop window next to them. Then he said snickering, "Try taking a look at your face, buddy."

Curious, Arnold looked into the window at his reflection and his eyes widened. On his right cheek was a set of lip marks made from the pink lipstick that Helga had been wearing earlier. _Have I been walking around with that on my face all this time?! _Arnold thought to himself, as he quickly wiped it off with his sleeve, smearing it at first.

Gerald laughed and said, "Man, Arnold, looks like you had an even better time tonight than I thought." He snickered some more at Arnold's expense.

Arnold blinked and said, "Wait a minute." Then he turned to look at his friend and asked, "Gerald, have you been following us around all evening?"

"Oh, um," Gerald began, looking a little uncomfortable at being caught. "Well, you see, no matter what I said before, I couldn't let you go out alone with her without watching your back." He smiled a little. "I wasn't the only one. Phoebe was following also, watching Helga. I guess she was also keeping an eye on her too."

Arnold didn't feel angry at Gerald or Phoebe, but instead smiled at Gerald now. "Oh, so you and Phoebe followed us together?" He put some emphasis on the last word and sure enough, a slight twinge of red rose in his best friend's cheeks.

"Well, we followed you guys to that seafood place and then to the movies, but after that, we sort-of lost track of you guys till we saw you at Helga's stoop," Gerald said, and then he smiled slightly. "So tell me, Romeo, where exactly did you two end up going?"

"We went to the Late Spring Fair at Tina Park," Arnold explained as they began walking toward his grandparent's boarding house. He went into details about everything that happened that evening, how all of his doom and gloom ideas about what Helga might do on their date never came true, aside from a few small things, which she herself made up for.

"So, we ate some corn dogs with some mustard and Yahoo sodas, and then I walked her to her house," Arnold finished. Then he handed Gerald the picture that he got done at the fair.

Gerald looked at it blinking over and over, almost as if he found the image of Arnold and Gerald both smiling in each other's company beyond believing at first. Arnold didn't blame him. He'd felt almost the same way before tonight.

Finally, Gerald shook his head, "Um, um, um, Arnold, my man, this is serious." He handed the photo back to Arnold, who put it away in his shirt pocket.

"Huh? What is?"

"Arnold, it's obvious!" He looked at his buddy as if he couldn't believe how dense he was. "First, Helga stops a bully from beating you up. Then she agrees to go on a date with you and doesn't get on your nerves. Then she even kisses you on the cheek at the end of the night." He looked at Arnold and gave his conclusions. "Arnold, my friend, Helga G. Pataki is crushing on you."

Arnold looked over at him and wondered if he should mention the whole FTI thing to him. He'd never told anyone else about what Helga confessed to him that night, mostly because he was worried about what it meant himself, and he had a hard enough time accepting it, without others teasing him for it.

Now Gerald, though his own powers of observation, just told him the words that he was unable to say out loud to himself, or even think about. That Helga G. Pataki, the girl that always picked on him, tortured him daily, and constantly called him names . . . actually had romantic feelings for him.

Naturally the first thing he could think to do was deny it. "Oh come on, Gerald, that's crazy. This is Helga we're talking about. She picks on me all the time and calls me names like 'football-head' and 'hair boy' all the time. She couldn't just have feelings for me like that."

Gerald looked at him, and raised an eyebrow. "You know something else, man? I don't think she's the only one. I think you are also crushing on Helga."

Arnold almost tripped over his own feet when Gerald said that. He looked at him and said, "What? Gerald are you kidding me?"

His best friend only grinned and said, "Well, you did have those weird dreams about Helga recently, and you didn't back out of that date after Rhonda started that rumor."

"That was just because she got hurt because of me." Arnold told him, even as a blush came to his cheeks." I mean, come on, this is Helga Pataki we're talking about here. The same girl who glued feathers onto my butt, squirts water on me at the water fountain, and made me dress up like a banana for a school play, I couldn't possibly have a crush on her."

That annoying Helga voice in his oblong brain suddenly whispered, _have you ever heard of that river in Egypt, Football-head? De-Nile._

Gerald only smirked and looked at Arnold with a sideways glance. "Sure thing buddy, whatever you say."

Arnold frowned, "Gerald, your starting to bug me." He blinked and said, "Wait a minute, are you being serious about all of this crush stuff?"

Gerald paused and shook his head, "Not really in your case. As far as Helga goes, I doubt it too. I mean, come on, Helga Pataki in love with you? That would be so . . . Twilight Zoneish, you know?"

Arnold sighed with relief and nodded, "Yeah, I suppose you're right, Gerald. That would be just way too weird."

Nodding, Gerald said, "Tomorrow, Helga will probably be back to her usual grouchy self."

A small part of Arnold felt a slight pang of regret that Gerald would probably be right about that. Still . . . Helga had been pleasant company tonight._ But what if she acted liked that all the time? _Arnold mused to himself. _I mean, she wasn't overly sweet or feminine like Lila, or a fancy dresser like Rhonda. Still, what if Helga just acted less bossy and mean all the time? I mean, if she acted the way she did tonight more often, then maybe . . ._

"Of course, then again, if she were crushing on you, maybe she'd give you another smooch in front of the class?" Gerald said, smirking at him in the teasing way again. "I could see it now, she walks in and goes, (he imitates Helga almost perfectly) 'There you are, _football-head_! Now don't just stand there like a geek, come here and give me some sugar! Doi!'" He crossed his eyes at the last part.

"Gerald!" Arnold said blushing brightly now as his buddy laughed at him. However, the image he brought up sort of made Arnold smiled also and he joined in laughing with Gerald all the way to his house.

His last thoughts and musings were temporarily forgotten.

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but looking in the same direction together." Antonne de Saint-Exupery _


	18. Part Eighteen

"_Love is the difficult realization that something other than one self is real."__ -Iris Murdoch_

**Part Eighteen: Yet another Dream Sequence**

_Arnold was standing in the middle of a vast snow-covered field alone in the middle of a snowstorm. He was wearing his blue winter coat and gloves, with snow boots and a pair of earmuffs to keep his ears from freezing in the cold air. A blue and tan scarf hung around his neck to keep him warm. Snowflakes fell in a steady stream all around him, some landing in his yellow blonde hair and on his shoulders._

_All around him was nothing but snow-covered open space, with several trees dotting the field. The dew trees also had snow covering them, ice hung from the bare branches of the trees, like crystal stalagmites._

_He turned around and blinked, wondering how he got here. Then he realized that this must also be a dream._

_As soon as that realization hit him, a gust of wind and snowflakes suddenly blew off his small blue hat. He tried to grab for it, but it flew just out of his reach and landed nearby at the feet of another person, who stood there looking at him and smiling._

_It was Helga. Arnold blinked when he saw her._

_She was wearing her purple blue coat, with her usual pink dress, pink scarf, matching gloves and brown snow boots. She also had a brown hat with ear-flaps on her head, her pink bow waved on top of it in the wind, almost like a small banner._

_Helga looked down at the small blue cap at her feet and smiled a little more. She stooped down and picked it up, then held it, almost with reverence, just looking at it and smiling. A moment later, she turned and placed his hat on top of a snowman next to her. The snowman was about Arnold's height and had a football-shaped head with carrots poking out of the top. The face was very simple and was made up of two large lumps of coal for eyes and smaller pieces set in a small smile. It had a blue scarf around its neck._

"_Perfect," she said, nodding at the snowman admiring her work._

_Arnold looked at the scene and couldn't help but smile a little. "It's a really good likeness," he told her, meaning it truthfully._

_Helga looked over at him and her blue eyes seemed to brighten with his approval. "You really think so, Arnold?" She asked him in that gentle way she'd spoken to him in his other dreams, and on their date last night._

_He just nodded and said, "Yeah, I do." Arnold watched as she actually seemed to blush a little. Maybe it was the cold, but then again, maybe she really did appreciate his complement. He couldn't help but blink again. The Helga he knew never blushed so openly or seemed like the bashful type at all._

_A moment later, a snowball hit him in the chest. He looked down as the remains of the snow clung to his buttoned up coat. Arnold looked up to see Helga smiling at him, her mouth was set in a playful smile, rather than the harsh one he was normally accustomed to._

_He smiled and picked up some snow of his own. If she wanted a snowball fight, he would be more than happy to give her one. He packed it and tossed it at Helga, who ducked behind a nearby tree, where the snowball hit harmlessly. Then she jumped out and tossed another, which he dodged easily. Then she ran away from him, giggling girlishly. Arnold picked up more snow and ran after her, laughing as he tossed it, hitting her in the small of the back._

_Suddenly, she turned and grabbed him at the top of a small hill. Both of them fell, rolling over in the snow down the small, snow-covered bank laughing the whole way. They landed on their backs next to one another, looking up at the gray clouds and the falling snow._

"_Hey Arnold," Helga's voice spoke up beside him. "Have you ever noticed that looking up at the falling snow looks a lot like traveling through the stars. If it were dark, it would be perfect."_

_Arnold smiled a little, thinking about her thoughtful words as the cold of the snow began to make him shiver slightly. "Yeah, it does a little." He blinked as he felt her snuggle up against him. The warmth of her body suddenly made him feel less cold and his heart pounded slightly for some reason. He blushed a little._

"_Arnold?" Helga's voice spoke again, this time right next to his ear, so close he could feel the warmth of her breath on his face. It gave him goose bumps along his neck. He turned his head to see her laying on her side next to him, looking at him in a very loving manner._

"_Y-yes, Helga?" He asked her nervously. She was so close now, he could smell her hair . . . and he liked it._

_Her gloved hand caressed his right cheek as she leaned her face in closer. Arnold could see some small snowflakes on her eyelashes as she closed her blue eyes and kissed his lips. If he thought he'd felt warm before when she snuggled close, this feeling made that one seem chilly by comparison. He tried to pull away at first, but her arm moved around his shoulder and pulled him in closer. A moment of the heavenly warmth of her lips against him, and Arnold, almost without thinking, put his own arm around her waist and pulled her in also, returning her kiss . . . _

"Hey Arnold! Hey Arnold! Hey Arnold! . . ." His alarm clock began ringing, signaling the start of a new day.

As he was pulled from his latest dream, Arnold groaned a moment, and then sat up quickly in his bed. He held his pillow against him, in the same spot where Helga would have been in the dream.

He blinked and then leaned over and folded his arms around his knees, thinking to himself,_ that's the third dream I've had with Helga in it, and I actually kissed her! What's going on? Why is this happening to me?_

Then, almost as if some force guiding him toward the answers to those questions were answering him, the photo of him and Helga at the fair the previous night fell from its spot next to his alarm clock on the shelf above his bed and landed right in front of him face up.

Arnold looked at both of the smiling faces in the picture, looking closely at the smile on Helga's face, the same one as in the dreams. Then he remembered the words of the woman who took the photo for them. Then the teasing words from Gerald last night about how Helga might be crushing on him . . .

_Oh no,_ he thought as a sudden idea hit him. _I think . . . that I may be falling in love with Helga!_

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet." -Plato _


	19. Part Nineteen

"_Love, kindled by virtue, always kindles another love, providing its flame shines forth."__ -Dante_

**Part Nineteen: The Next Morning and Unwelcome Discoveries**

"Helga, honey, wake up!"

Helga was rudely awakened by Miriam's shouts from downstairs. She was lying on her stomach with the covers wrapped around her from all of the tossing and turning she'd done in her sleep last night. She'd had a wonderful dream about her and Arnold dancing together at a fancy ball, which was going to end in what she knew would have been a wonderful, lingering kiss when Miriam's shrill voice brought her roughly back to reality.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm getting up, criminy!" She shouted out lifting her head from her pillow. She turned and sat up. "Oh man, I feel like I got hit by a bus," she muttered as she got out of bed and stood up. She yawned and felt a little of the drowsiness leave her. Helga felt exhausted. Last night had been very tiring, even if it had been the most enjoyable experience of her life to date.

When all of the details of Helga's previous night with Arnold came back to her, she grinned and turned to her closet. She opened the door and went right to the back, pushing the curtains of clothes aside to get to her shrine. She turned on the Christmas lights she'd nailed up in the back and dropped to her knees in the light illuminating the monument to her beloved.

"Oh Arnold, my love," Helga began, with a reverence in her voice that was almost prayer-like. "After six years of plotting and scheming, I finally had a date with you, my darling . . ." She couldn't continue because her heart began to pound faster at the memory of how last night ended. She'd kissed him. Granted on the cheek rather than the lips, but for some reason, that kiss was just as special as any of the others she'd share, perhaps more so, because it had been at the end of a date with him. Helga grinned broadly at the memory of her own boldness and began to swoon.

A thought suddenly occurred to her, _What is he going to tell everyone else about our date?_ She blinked a moment and considered this aloud.

"But what about everyone else? They will probably want to know what happened, won't they? What if Arnold says something about that kiss, or anything else?" She smiled and said, remembering what happened, "Oh, no big deal, if anyone says anything I will have to let_ 'Old Betsy'_ . . ." She stopped remembering the bandage on her left hand. "Err, well, I'll let the 'Five Avengers' do my talking for me." She raised her unhurt right hand grinning._ That will take care of most people once they see someone get knocked flat. Of course, Arnold probably won't tell anyone else, other than Gerald perhaps. I can probably deal with that. _

That thought reminded Helga that she will probably have to tell Phoebe some of what happened last night. She was thinking about exactly what she would say to her when she stood up to get ready for school.

* * *

At the same time a few blocks away, Arnold emerged from the Sunset Arms boarding house and meet Gerald waiting for him at the bottom of the stoop. This morning, instead of waiting the bus to school, Arnold and Gerald decided to walk the whole way to enjoy the warm, sunny weather. The morning sunshine, with the hint of summer approaching, was heaven to the two school weary boys.

At least, it would have been to Arnold, if he were not preoccupied with the images from the latest Helga dream he'd had. He thought he could still feel the moist warmth of her lips against his own from the dream.

Gerald looked over at Arnold and blinked seeing a somewhat goofy look on his best friend's face. He stopped in mid-step, while Arnold, completely oblivious, kept walking. Arnold was so lost in his own thoughts that he walked right into a telephone pole face-first and then landed on his back.

Shaking his head, Gerald offered a hand to Arnold, who sheepishly took it and stood up. "Thanks, Gerald." He retrieved his books from the ground while Gerald looked at him. "Man, Arnold, are you okay?"

Arnold stood back up and nodded, "Yeah, I guess I'm still just a little tired. I had another dream last night, Gerald."

Gerald stopped in his tracks and said, "What? You had another dream about Helga G. Pataki!" He was wide-eyed with shock as he said that. Then he shook his head back and forth. "Hmm, um, um, Arnold, my man, you have it bad."

Arnold looked up at him and his half-lidded eyes closed slightly, "Gerald, I do _not_ have a crush on Helga Pataki, okay?" Even as he denied this, Arnold felt the doubts linger, especially after the dream.

Gerald grinned and answered coyly, "Whatever you say, buddy."

"Gerald," Arnold warned, giving him a withering look.

"Okay, okay, I'll stop," Gerald said, still grinning though. Then he asked, "I wonder how Helga is going to act today? I mean, you two did sort-of hit it off and all, maybe she'll actually be nicer, if that's possible?"

"I don't know," Arnold muttered, lost in thought. That same exact question had been on Arnold's mind all morning ever since he woke up. In truth, though he knew Helga would probably be her old self again today, a small part of him hoped that Helga would mellow out just a tiny bit, maybe lay off the pranks and name calling. He wished that, for once, she would show the person he saw last night by that fountain and not the bully she normally acted like. If she did . . . well Arnold wasn't sure what he might do if she did, but even as he thought about it, a smile formed on his face.

Gerald noticed this, sighed and shook his head, knowing that any more conversation on their walk would not happen. They walked in silence almost the rest of the way.

* * *

At the same instant that Arnold and Gerald were halfway to school, Helga was finally finished dressing. She put on her usual pink dress and white blouse with matching pink bow for her hair. She gave it an extra tug and made sure it looked perfect. She examined herself in the mirror and smiled a very pleased smile.

Then she looked over at the dresser and saw the picture from last night of her and Arnold together by the fountain, smiling so close to one-another. A grin came to Helga's face and she said, "I know just the right place to put you." Then she went to get her locket from the clothes she wore last night. "Now, where did I put it?" She asked herself quietly. At first, she didn't find it on any of the pockets, or anything. Then she blinked and checked the floor in case it fell out. A moment later, she began to panic. It was missing! She looked all over her room, practically tearing it apart. Sweat stains appeared under her armpits as she began to perspire from sheer anxiety.

All at once, the memory of the last time she saw her locket came to her. In her mind's eye, she could see it fall into the water of the same fountain in Tina Park. Her eyes widened and she let out a loud, ear-piercing scream . . .

* * *

Several blocks away, Arnold paused and turned to his best friend. "Did you hear something just now, Gerald?"

Gerald shrugged and said, "Nope." Arnold also shrugged and the two of them continued on their way to school.

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds." -Goethe _


	20. Part Twenty

"_On this earth, through far and near, without love, there is only fear."_ -_Pearl S. Buck_

**Part Twenty: Helga's Anxiety**

Helga ran downstairs and then out of her house, not even saying goodbye to her parents, both of whom were busy cleaning Olga's trophies anyhow to notice their youngest daughter running down the stairs to the front door, with a look of utter fear on her face. She ran all the way to Tina Park and through the gates at a dead run toward the fountain.

All around her were the left over signs of the fair that she and Arnold shared their first real date at the day before. Peanut shells, half-eaten candy apples, cotton candy bags and other similar garbage were strewn all around the area, attesting to the activities from the day before. The rides, which had been lit up and running the day before, with hundreds of people on, or around them, now stood still and lifeless, the laugher and the screams absent in the daylight. Several fair personal were doing their best to clean up around the area and get it ready for tonight as well.

Helga noticed none of those things, too intent on the fountain. Because of this, she didn't see the empty Yahoo Soda bottle on the ground at her feet as she ran right up to it and slipped, her momentum knocked her forward toward the outer rim of the fountain, which she flipped over and landed headfirst into the water with a splash. She sat up, the water sprinkling down on her growling slightly.

Then she got down on her hands and knees inside the fountain, feeling around the bottom of the clear water at all the silver and copper coins shining underneath the surface for one golden object in particular. She was growing more and more worried with each moment she couldn't find it. After about ten panicked moments, which seemed like an even longer period of time for Helga, she'd searched the pool three times, only to discover that her locket was not there. It was gone! All gone!

"Criminy! This is horrible! Someone probably picked up my locket last night, or this morning," she said aloud to herself, sounding pathetically scared. They might have already opened it up and started reading the inscription on the inside. The full implications of this disaster finally struck Helga like a blow to the head. She felt suddenly faint, but through sheer force of will, did not actually faint. Instead, she made a vain attempt to calm herself and to somehow get it together. Her hands were shaking badly and she was breathing so badly, she thought she might hyperventilate.

"Okay, Helga, don't panic, just stay focused and think this through," she said to herself climbing awkwardly out of the fountain. "Somewhere, probably not far away, someone has my locket, which holds the deepest, darkest, desire of my young heart. My secret love for Arnold could become public knowledge and then I will be mocked and jeered at for the rest of my life."

She stopped and her eyes widened. "Oh no, what if someone at school has it?! What if they came to the fair last night and saw me and Arnold, then they came over after we left and took my locket?!" Even though there was no proof of that, Helga's imagination began working overtime and building up an ever increasing scenario where she arrives at school and is suddenly taunted and laughed at by the whole school, starting with all of her friends and classmates. Helga let out another scream and this time, she really did faint.

* * *

"I'm telling you, Gerald, I could swear that I heard something just then," Arnold said at the same moment going up the steps of the school building with Gerald on their way to class.

"Arnold, if you don't feel very well, you should go back home and skip today," Gerald said, looking over at his best friend concerned.

"No, Gerald, I'm fine." Arnold assured him, even though he did have a lot on his mind at the moment.

Together, the two boys walked into the classroom and sat down at their usual desks. Arnold turned and blinked seeing Phoebe there at her desk, but not seeing Helga at all. "Hey Phoebe, where's Helga at?" Gerald turned his head also to look back at Phoebe.

Phoebe shook her head, "I'm not certain, Arnold. She never showed up to walk with me to school today and I had to take the bus."

Arnold looked at the empty desk again and a worried look crossed his face. _What happened to her? _He asked himself. _Could she be out sick today? Did it have anything to do with last night? Maybe too much carnival food or movie popcorn?_

Abruptly the memories of last night came to him again, especially how calm and nice Helga had been, and then how she kissed him on the cheek last night . . . Arnold shook his head and then turned back around and looked at his desk. "I hope that she's all right." He said to himself in a whisper.

Gerald looked over at Arnold having heard the words and his mouth opened in surprise. Then he closed his mouth and shook his head, then took out his books. Behind him, Phoebe looked over at the empty seat worried.

A moment later, Mr. Simmons arrived with his usual drawn out greetings to the class, followed by the usual responses. Then he was just about to outline what was going to be done today when the door opened widely, having been pushed open hard.

Helga walked in, soaking wet and still slightly dripping. Her wet hair was a mess and her pigtails had come undone. Her pink bow was crooked and clung to the top of her hair, one side of it untied and dangling and she smelled like dirty water. She also had a look on her face that clearly said: _Lookout world, here comes Helga G. Pataki, and you better get the heck outta my way!_

Without a word, she stalked over to her seat past a very surprised Mr. Simmons and a somewhat shocked and curious class full of students.

Stinky suddenly spoke up as she passed by, snickering. "What happened to you, Helga, did you fall into a fountain, or somethin'?"

Helga growled and turned on him practically spitting in his face, "Oh, go cram it in your nose, _Stink-o_!" She got right up in his face, almost nose-to-nose, and Stinky scrunched down in his seat, blinking over and over nervously.

Then Helga continued to her seat and sat down with a wet, splashy flop. Phoebe looked over at her worried, but after the way she spoke to Stinky, she wasn't going to risk having Helga's ire turned on her. As it was, Helga looked around at everyone, as if daring one of them to say something. Then she scowled and said, "What are all of _you_ weirdoes looking at?!" All of them, except Arnold turned away quickly.

Mr. Simmons only blinked once and then wisely turned back to the lesson plan for the day without a word about Helga's tardiness or appearance.

Arnold's gaze lingered on her for a moment longer, till she bared her teeth at him and he too turned away, looking somewhat surprised. He felt somewhat shocked at the situation. A million questions came to his mind at once. The most important one was to wonder what had happened to her since last night.

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_Love is an act of forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit." -Peter Ustinov _


	21. Part TwentyOne

"_Love that does not reveal itself is as bitter as the flowers that grow among the thickets of the moors in the summer."__ -Manyo Shu_

**Part Twenty-One: The Confrontation**

Arnold just couldn't understand what had happened to Helga. First she comes to school soaking wet, then she practically jumped down everyone's throat for little or no reason.

The first victim had been poor Phoebe. She'd tried to ask Helga why she was wet, and Helga turned and glared at her, saying, "Just mind your own business!" Phoebe looked totally taken aback and turned away, not talking to Helga anymore, but glancing over at her every now and again with a mixture of worry and fear in her eyes. Arnold glanced over at Gerald, who he saw was scowling back at Helga's attitude toward Phoebe.

When Arnold heard some giggling behind him, he turned to see Rhonda and Nadine whispering something. Helga turned and he thought he saw a look of panic cross her face just before she frowned and said, "Criminy, what are you two, a couple of hens cackling away back there!" Both girls looked scandalized and frowned at her turning away and muttering darkly.

Then Helga turned and saw him looking at her. Arnold looked at her worried, thinking, _Helga, what is it? What happened to you?_ Then Helga glared at him, "What are you starring at, _football-face?_!"

Arnold blinked and turned away, feeling as if someone just drenched him in cold water. He was honestly surprised at how disappointed he felt all of a sudden. So it was back to name calling and insults for Helga. Arnold sighed and glanced at Gerald. His best friend gave him a sympathetic look and shook his head sadly.

He looked down at the quiz paper that Mr. Simmons gave them all for busy lessons. It was history work and the questions were more-or-less the same stuff they learned about at the beginning of the year. Arnold tired to think of the answers to the multiple choice questions, but he had a hard time doing so. Arnold kept thinking about their date last night and how Helga acted so well. In addition to that, the dreams and the kickball incident also came to mind. Again he asked himself, _what happened? Everything seemed to be going so well, then she comes in and starts being mean again. What gives?_

A moment later, the spit wads began. Arnold felt annoyed and turned to frown back at Helga. She just scowled at her, while she just glared back and muttered, "What?" He turned sighing and prepared himself for the inevitable. All of his previous thoughts went out the window. He prepared himself for the long haul.

In the course of three full hours of school, Arnold endured a first period of having nearly three dozen spitballs hitting him in the back of the head and neck. The second period, she'd tossed a dozen crumpled pieces of paper, three of which had those small, hard erasers in them. Finally, in the third period, she'd escalated to shooting rubber bands at his neck, which hurt. His ear was still throbbing over one that had a paper clip tied to it when the bell rang for lunch period.

Arnold was never gladder to get out of the classroom. He was practically out the door, when Helga elbowed him hard in the back, causing him to fall over slightly. She didn't even look at him as she shouted, "Outta my way, geek-bait!" She stomped off down the hallway to her locker, with Phoebe meekly following behind, giving Arnold and Gerald apologetic looks.

Gerald frowned slightly and helped Arnold to his feet. "Man, Arnold, she's really been laying it into you today."

Arnold sighed, "I know, Gerald. Why is she acting like this today? I thought she'd be much better after last night."

Gerald shrugged and said, "She's Helga G. Pataki, man. That's how she is. I mean, the girl's just a pain in the butt, Arnold."

"I don't know, Gerald," Arnold said doubtfully as they reached their lockers putting their books away. "I mean, I think there's more to it than that. It's not just me that she's been messing with, she fussed at Lila for 'breathing too loud' in second period, and threatened to pound Sid flat in third if he didn't stop giggling with the guys in the back." He looked at Gerald and said, "I think something happened to her today, or maybe last night after I left her, and she's worried about something."

"Maybe," Gerald said doubtfully. "Or maybe she's just making up for not being nasty last night?"

Arnold bit his bottom lip a moment, thinking hard._ I can't buy that. Helga's not always so mean and insecure. Usually it's just me she picks on, everyone else she intimidates, but never to this degree. I know something is wrong, but she's just taking most of it out on me. Did I do something wrong last night?'_

Try as he might, Arnold couldn't think of a single thing he could have done to make her mad. If he had, there's no way she would have given him that last kiss . . .

He shook his head and said, "Come on, Gerald, I'm hungry." Then the two of them made their way to the cafeteria.

A few minutes later, Arnold had a tray of cafeteria food in his hands making his way with Gerald over to the table where they usually sat. To get there, however, they had to pass by Helga and Phoebe's usual table. Arnold glanced at her a moment, only to see her looking suddenly anxious as the girls nearby laughed out loud over something. He frowned in thought. Something was apparently bothering Helga.

Unfortunately, since he was lost in thought at the time, he failed to see Helga stick out her foot. Arnold tripped over it and landed hard on the floor, the contents of his tray all falling into many colored splatters before him and his unopened chocolate milk carton hitting him on top of the head.

Everyone in the cafeteria laughed hard at his expense, including Helga who smirked down at him and shouted out, "Hey, enjoy your little trip, _football-head_?" Then she laughed harshly.

The only three who were not laughing was Gerald, Phoebe, and Arnold himself. Gerald was glaring at Helga, with a look of utter disgust on his face. Phoebe looked very shocked and embarrassed for Arnold's sake.

Arnold on the other hand felt totally humiliated. Everyone was laughing at him, pointing his way. He could even hear Harold's bellowing laugher and taunts of, "Poor wittle Ar-nuld fell down!"

_That's it! I've had enough of this!_ Arnold thought to himself, his feeling of humiliation was replaced with one of anger. Arnold stood up, looking down at Helga and said, "What's your problem with me today, Helga?!"

Helga was unprepared to be confronted like this, especially by Arnold, and she was in absolutely no mood for it. She stood up and glared down at him. "You're the problem, you little yellow-haired _shrimp_! Now get the heck outta my way!" She made to go past him.

Arnold moved to block her path. He was tired of dealing with Helga's crap today. Indeed, not just today, but the last six years of petty tortures and humiliations, of name calling and sarcasm finally took their toll and Arnold was through with it.

He stared right up at her and said, "No, you listen to me, Helga! This had gone on long enough! I don't know what's gotten into you today, but stop taking it out on me! I'm done dealing with your bad attitude!"

Now Helga was getting angrier and she scowled in the most menacing way she could. It made everyone watching suddenly feel very sorry for Arnold, knowing that he was probably seconds away from being clobbered. Helga curled up her right fist and thrust it right under Arnold's nose. "If you don't get outta my face, football-head, I'm going to pound you!"

Arnold was done being intimidated and he was through messing around with her. Then he took a step toward her, right into her personal space, looked right back at her evenly and matched her glare with one of his own. "Then do it!"

Everyone around them gasped aloud. Gerald's eyes widened and Phoebe covered her mouth with her hand, letting out a small terrified squeal. Rhonda's mouth hung wide open and Stinky shook his head with a stunned expression on his face. Everyone else had similar reactions as what they just witnessed. Arnold had called out Helga G. Pataki.

The strongest reaction to Arnold's statement was Helga herself. Her eyes widened slightly and her breath caught in her throat. For a second, her angry look faltered. She suddenly felt as if the world just started spinning faster. Then she flinched and stammered out, "W-what?" Her fist lowered and went limp.

Arnold saw the reaction, being as close to her now as he was, and felt some small measure of savage triumph at her uncertainty. He smirked and narrowed his eyes, "I said do it, Helga! You've been threatening to 'pound me flat' for years, well here's your chance, go for it!"

Helga suddenly seemed very aware of the fact that everyone was now watching their every move. A strong part of her mind shouted out: _Do it Helga! He called you out! You're justified! Everyone is watching and you'll look like a wimp if you chicken out!_

At the same time another stronger part of her mind, as well as her heart, also shouted out: _Helga, you can't! It's Arnold! If you hit him, you'll ruin any chance of ever getting close to him again!_

Long seconds ticked by and Helga was still struck with indecision. Everyone else was beginning to notice this and Helga realized that some of them were looking at her suspiciously now. That strong survival instinct within her that kept her secret feelings hidden for so long shouted again:_ Do something, Helga! Everyone's watching!_

Helga tried to shove past Arnold again, but Arnold continued to stand in front of her pushing back, green eyes locked onto her own blue ones. His face was set and determined.

Arnold could see the indecision in her eyes, and the conflict. Then he deliberately pushed her. A part of him knew that doing so was not a good idea, and that it might force her hand in front of the whole class and half the school. Yet another part, the one that had been hurt by Helga's behavior today and for the past six years, was enjoying watching the tables turned on his tormentor for once. She was nervous and scared now, he could tell, and it pleased him somehow to take out his own frustrations on her.

He leaned in and was almost nose to nose with her and she took a small step back. "Well, are you going to put your money where your mouth is, Helga?!"

Helga felt the anger and the anxiety building more inside of her at those words. _Why—that—little—football-headed—geek!_

Fear and anger made her shake then. He was calling her out! Just like that! He was making her lose face in front of everyone. Why was Arnold doing this to her? And that smirk, that annoying smirk of his, like he knew she wouldn't do it. That more than anything else made her the angriest._ Who the heck does he think he is?!_

"LAST WARNING, _FOOTBALL-HEAD_ GET OUTTA MY WAY, OR YOU'RE GOING TO BE WEARING MY KNUCKLE PRINTS ALL OVER YOUR DUMB FACE!"

She didn't even need to pretend the anger she felt now. That self preserving part of her was screaming out once again:_ Just hit him! If you back out now, everyone will see you're a wimp! _While, in the meantime, the other part of her, the part that loved Arnold shouted: _You can't! You'll lose any chance you've ever had with him if you hit him!_

Arnold felt his heart quicken just then at the intensity of her shout, and the emotion he could feel behind it. The rational side of his mind told him to back down before this gets out of hand. Then Arnold blinked and steeled his resolve. _'No, not this time!'_

He folded his arms across his chest and gave her one last firm glare and shouted out, "GO AHEAD, HELGA, I DARE YOU!"

Helga suddenly felt like she couldn't breathe. Indeed she felt as if the wind had been knocked completely out of her. Arnold couldn't have done worse if he'd slapped her hard across the face. He'd called her bluff and everyone was looking on with their mouths wide open, their eyes wide and shaking in anticipation of seeing what would happen next. Most of them fully expected Arnold to be on the receiving end of several hard blows in a minute.

She was trembling as she looked into his eyes, those same green eyes she'd admired on their date last night. Those green, gorgeous eyes that made her heart skip a beat, her senses all go wacky. Now she could hear the chants of "Fight! Fight! Fight!" in her ears and her adrenalin pumping. Her fist curled at her side and her mind was in turmoil. She was out of time now. Time to put up, or shut up.

A moment later, Helga made the decision of her life . . .

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand." Mother Theresa _


	22. Part TwentyTwo

"_There is the same difference in a person before and after he is in love, as there is in an unlighted lamp and one that is burning.__"__ -Vincent Van Gogh_

**Part Twenty-Two: Rhonda's Realization**

Helga uncurled her fist and she turned away, a mixed look of anger and frustration crossing her face for a moment. She let out a frustrated growl, and then just walked away, eyes straight ahead, not looking at anyone else. Phoebe stood up and followed Helga looking a little worried.

Everyone was in a state of shock. Helga G. Pataki walked away from a confrontation. With Arnold of all people! All of them had looks that ranged from incredulous shock to stunned surprise. Gerald smiled widely and walked over patting his friend on the back, "Well done, my man."

Arnold felt a strange mixture of triumph and relief in his gut when Helga walked away. To be honest, he wasn't certain which way Helga was going to go. He hadn't been thinking at all, being too intent on getting her to stop picking on him. Now the realization of what he'd done finally hit him. He'd stood up to Helga Pataki, his childhood tormentor and arch nemesis . . . and he'd won!

Now the entire class and several other students who'd watched the fight began to cheer Arnold. Some of them came over and patted him on the back also, or congratulate him on his victory. He felt a smile cross his face. For the first time that day, since this morning, things felt really good.

After lunch (which he had to go back and get seconds for) and a playground period where he'd played tether ball without incident, Arnold returned to class with Gerald an hour later, still feeling really good about the praise he'd received during the whole affair. He sat down at his desk as everyone else came into the room and sat.

The last one to enter the room was Phoebe, who looked a little worried. Arnold noticed this and when she came between his and Gerald's desks, he asked, "Hey Phoebe, what's wrong?"

Phoebe looked at him, and the worry in her eyes was magnified by her glasses. "I can't locate Helga, Arnold. After everything in the cafeteria, she wondered off. I tried to follow, but she said she needed to be alone. She went off on her own and I haven't seen her all recess period."

Arnold blinked and then realized that he hadn't seen her on the playground either. Suddenly, all of his good feelings over standing up for himself gave way to a small feeling of worry mixed with guilt. He remembered that the reason he was so mad was not so much because of her behavior today, rather than his own disappointment and confusion.

Gerald spoke up then, "Don't worry about Helga, she'll turn up sooner or later. She's probably still smarting over the fact Arnold called her bluff." He grinned at Arnold then.

Phoebe frowned slightly and said, "Gerald, this is nothing to be happy about. Helga was completely humiliated by what happened at lunch."

Arnold looked at her, suddenly feeling very defensive. "Oh, and I suppose picking on me and tripping me in the cafeteria didn't humiliate me?"

"Arnold, I'm just concerned that your confronting her like that may have upset her," Phoebe said, but held it at that. She didn't want to give too much away, but she hoped that Arnold could read between the lines.

"Well frankly, I think that Helga's had that coming to her for a long time," Rhonda said, speaking up from her desk nearby, in her snooty way. She'd no doubt been listening to everything that was said.

"Yeah, she's all bark and no bite," Sid said, adding his own opinion. "She just showed she's all talk and no action!"

Others began to agree with the two of them nodding and speaking up all at once. Curly however was the only one to ask, "So, why did Helga hit Belch if she's such a wimp then?"

At that everyone else got quiet. Indeed it didn't make sense that she could stand up to an older bully like Belch and still wimp out against a boy who was slightly shorter and nonviolent like Arnold. At least, it didn't to most of the class, but then Rhonda suddenly spoke up.

"Hold up," she said, her eyes flashing with some sort-of idea. Then she turned and looked at everyone. "The reason she did it was because Arnold was in trouble." A knowing smile came to her face.

"Um, Rhonda, I thought she did it because Belch shoved her down?" Nadine asked, looking skeptical.

"Oh, think about it, Nadine, why did Belch shove Helga down in the first place?" Without waiting for an answer, Rhonda plowed ahead, "Because Helga was stopping him from beating up Arnold."

Stinky frowned a bit and scratched a finger on top of his head, then said dully, in his nasal country accent, "I don't get it, Rhonda."

"Yeah, what are you trying to say?" Eugene asked, looking at Rhonda curiously.

Rhonda was smiling triumphantly over the attention she was getting for her own brilliance. "What I'm trying to say is that the reason Helga didn't hit Arnold, was because she couldn't do it."

Then she rounded on Arnold, who now felt uncomfortable to be a part of this topic. "So tell us, Arnold, what happened last night on that little 'date' of yours with Helga?" She put the word "date" in air quotations just like Mr. Simmons would have.

Arnold looked down slightly and began to rub his arm, "Oh, um, nothing much. We went out to eat, then to the movies, and then the fair." Then he looked up and added quickly, "I just wanted to make it all up to her for everything that happened the other day at kickball."

Rhonda smirked and her eyes shown bright with some sort-of hidden insight, "Well, I think that pretty much says it all then." She nodded briskly.

"Yeah!" Sid said, then blinked and turned to Rhonda. "Um, what does it say exactly?"

Then Rhonda dropped the bombshell with a grin. "That Helga G. Pataki has a crush on Arnold."

Those words were enough to make the whole classroom quiet. Everyone was looking at Rhonda with a mixture of disbelief, or stunned realization. Phoebe, Lila, and Brainy were both looking at her slightly worried, the boys were looking at Rhonda with their mouths hanging wide open and the girls were all wide-eyed, as if it all seemed to suddenly make sense to them too.

Arnold suddenly wished he could evaporate right there on the spot. His cheeks were beginning to turn red and his stomach felt strangely empty.

"Rhonda that can't be true," Park said from over on the left. "I mean, Helga has been picking on Arnold and bullying him since kindergarten." A few others nodded at this.

Rhonda, on the other had, didn't seem affected by that at all. "Oh use your brain, people. I can't believe that I never saw this for myself." She stood up and smiled triumphantly. "In all the times that Helga had ever threatened to beat up any of us, how many of us has she ever actually punched, other than Brainy and Harold on occasion?"

At that, everyone seemed to be quiet and thinking about it. Arnold thought about it also, and the truth hit him hard. Helga had never actually punched or hit him on any way, ever. She'd shoved him a few times, jabbed him with her sharp elbows on occasions, and certainly threatened to pound Arnold flat, but never once has she ever done so.

If it was so obvious to Arnold now, it was doubly obvious to everyone else in class too. Slowly everyone seemed to be coming to the same conclusions. Stunned amazement seemed to fill the room.

"Wow, I never really thought about it," Sheena said, almost in a whisper.

"Bow howdy, Rhonda's right," Sid said, looking bewildered.

"Of course I am," Rhonda said, snootily, as if the idea she could be wrong were a completely foreign concept. To her it probably was.

Harold began to smile, "Helga's nothing but a big softy wimp!" Then he began to laugh his loud, obnoxious braying.

"Yeah, I recon Helga ain't nothin' but a big talker," Stinky said, smiling and laughing now. There was some laughter at his words.

"That's right," Rhonda said. "Helga's been lording it over us and playing like she's so tough all this time and now she's been exposed for the fraud she is."

"Wait a minute," Gerald said, standing up and looking at all of them. "Helga Pataki isn't just a talker. I mean, didn't you see the way she broke Belch's nose. Believe me, even if she is a talker, she does have some action to her."

Arnold was starting to feel some gratitude for Gerald's observation when Rhonda spoke up again. "Yeah, she did it, but only because it was Arnold who was in trouble." Now Arnold wished that Gerald had kept his mouth shut, since everyone was now focused on him again.

"That's right," Harold said, in his loud, mocking tone. "Helga hit Belch because she's in love with Ar-nuld. Ah ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" The rest of the class giggled at his words, or laughed along with him, all except Gerald, Phoebe and Arnold, who suddenly felt a desire to hide under his desk.

The only other person who wasn't laughing was Brainy, who was sitting in the back and looking a little uncomfortable for some reason.

Mr. Simmons then appeared at the doorway and closed the door. "Okay class, settle down, listening ears. Since today is the last full day of school, we're going to spend the rest of the day—um wait, where's Helga?"

"I haven't seen her since lunch, Mr. Simmons," Phoebe said meekly, looking up at the teacher.

Nobody else said anything, though there were some snickers in the back near Rhonda's desk. Arnold suddenly felt very annoyed at their attitude. He also felt somewhat responsible for all of it after what happened at lunch. He stood up and said, "I'll go and try to find her." Gerald blinked and looked at his friend, then smiled a little and shook his head. Phoebe offered Arnold a small smile also.

"Well, that's really special of you, Arnold," Mr. Simmons said, dismissing him. A few of his classmates snickered. Arnold ignored them and left in search of Helga.

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law." -Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, AD 524 _


	23. Part TwentyThree

"_Listening is love in action." -__Leo Buscaglia_

**Part Twenty-Three:** **Serious Conversation**

After leaving the classroom and all of his snickering classmates behind, Arnold walked down the hallway in search of Helga.

The first place he searched was the janitor's closet, which Helga sometimes referred to as her office. Upon finding nothing but a very annoyed janitor looking for light bulbs, Arnold continued his search, looking in the cafeteria, then behind the garbage bins at the end of the playground, then underneath the stairs, and various other places trying to find her. No luck so far.

_Where could she be? _He thought to himself walking back up the hallway, looking left and right. For a moment, Arnold thought that maybe Helga skipped out on the rest of the classes and simply went home. Then another idea occurred to him.

Arnold then went to the girl's bathroom on the second floor just in time to catch a third grader with bushy brown hair and large glasses walking out. "Um, excuse me; did you see anyone else in there?" He asked a little awkwardly. "A fourth grade girl with blonde hair and a pink dress."

The girl looked up at him and answered in a squeaky little voice, "Yes, she's in there. I think she might be crying." Then she hurried off to her class, glancing back at Arnold as she did so.

Arnold felt a strong sense of relief as he found out she was still there. He needed to talk to her personally. He then looked at the ladies room door and knocked on it. "Helga, it's me, Arnold." He then opened the door an inch or two, but didn't look inside. He felt very self conscious about looking inside a girl's bathroom. "Are you okay?"

Suddenly the door opened widely and Arnold felt someone grab his arm and pull him inside. He closed his eyes and covered them with his left hand. He heard Helga snort and say, "Oh, criminy, you can look, there's nobody else in here." He slowly lowered his hand and opened his eyes. The bathroom looked about the same as the boy's bathroom down the hallway, except that the tiles on the walls were pink instead of blue and there were no urinals on the other side of the mirrors.

He turned to look at Helga and saw her looking down at him. She looked like she was tired and her eyes looked sort-of red, like she'd been crying. That made Arnold blink in astonishment. Did he do that to her? Now he began to feel guilty again, despite his fact all he'd done before was stand up for himself.

"Helga, are you all right?" He asked her.

Helga just looked at him a moment and blinked. "Am I all right? Am I all right?! Criminy, do I look like I'm all right, _football-head_?! You humiliated me in the cafeteria in front of everyone!"

Arnold suddenly felt a need to defend himself. He looked back at her and said, "Oh, and I suppose you didn't humiliate me before when you tripped me?"

She frowned and folded her arms across her chest, "That's different."

"How is it different, Helga?" Arnold asked her, starting to sound annoyed.

"It just is!" Helga said refusing to look at him.

"Helga, all you've done today is yell and scowl, and boss everyone around, and pick on me!"

She snorted, "What's your point,_ hair-boy_? I always do that."

Arnold looked at her and said, "Oh, so you don't think that humiliating me in public is a big deal, but you go walk off and hide in here when someone else does it back. How can you say that?"

Helga looked at him and said, "Because you don't have some bully reputation to maintain, _football-head_!"

"Will you stop calling me football-head?!" Arnold said, frowning at her and narrowing his eyes. He suddenly felt very fed up once again. "Just stop it, okay?! I can't stand it when you call me that!" He said it with such fierceness that Helga actually looked astonished and blinked.

Arnold noticed this and sighed, feeling his annoyance evaporate again. "Look, Helga, I'm sorry for what I did before . . ."

Helga frowned once again, "You're sorry?! Sorry isn't going to cut it, foot- um, I mean, Arnold." Now Arnold blinked surprised that she actually listened to him.

She continued, "Look, you didn't just have your reputation shot all to heck in front of the whole class! But then again, what the heck would you know about being a bully, Arnold?! Mr. Do-The-Right-Thing! You're the guy everyone likes, the one everyone listens to! You're the moral one, Arnold! Me all, I have is my reputation as a tough girl and you just _had_ to go and blow it out of the water, didn't you?!"

Helga walked over to the sinks and held onto one of them from both sides, leaning on it. In the mirror, Arnold could see the expression on her face. Annoyance mixed with some regret and something else he couldn't quite identify. Arnold looked at her and felt like he needed to say more.

"Helga, what happened to you since last night?" He asked her, it was the most important question on his mind.

She looked up and said, "I . . . well, I . . . um, I had a bad morning, that's all." Helga was obviously not going to go into details.

Arnold looked at her and then walked over to stand beside her. He felt like he couldn't be too mad at her. She looked really done in just then. Instead, he took a breath and said, "Helga, listen, we need to get back to class . . ."

Helga turned and shook her head, looking a little anxious now. "Not a chance! I'll be eaten alive if I go back in there now!"

"Who cares what they think?" He said to her, hoping to calm her.

"Oh easy for you to say," she said, frowning at him. "You didn't just look like a wimp in front of everyone who thought you were tough as nails before!"

Arnold then looked up at her and said, "Well, then why didn't you hit me back in the cafeteria?"

Helga blinked again and suddenly a very uncertain look crossed her face. "Oh, um that's a good question. If I had to do it all over again, I would in a second." Although she tried to sound sarcastic and tough when she said those words, her voice betrayed the fact she was lying about them.

Arnold realized this and he looked down, finding the tiles on the floor interesting all of a sudden. "Helga, for what it's worth, I'm sorry that I played with your feelings."

Helga looked at him and blinked, "What are you talking about, f- Arnold?"

He sighed and said, "I knew that you weren't going to hit me, and when I called you out in the cafeteria, I was so angry that all I wanted to do was get back at you for what happened." Arnold turned and rested his own hands on the sink beside him.

"Huh?" She looked bewildered for a moment, as well as confused. "What made you think that I wouldn't have socked you right in front of everyone?"

Arnold looked at her and said, "Helga, I may be dense about a lot of things (Helga snorted a little at that, but he continued over it) but I knew that you would never have hurt me."

"How could you be sure?" Helga asked, folding her arms and leaning on the sink looking right at him curiously.

"Because of the way you were last night on our date," he said carefully and then turned to look at her and went on. "Last night, you showed me that you can be more that just the bully that you act like here at school and when we hang out together with the gang. Helga, I know that there is more to you than just a mean, scowling, sarcastic bully. You think that you're so tough and so bad, but deep down, I know that you're really not."

Helga blinked and looked at him surprised; her large blue eyes widened a little.

Arnold continued, "You can be a very good person, Helga. I know that you're just afraid to show it, because you think that everyone else will laugh at you."

Now Helga looked really lost and bewildered. She just couldn't believe that Arnold could see things so clearly now. Or maybe he always had but only now decided to speak up. She looked at him a moment, then she slowly nodded. "You're right, Arnold." She sighed and took a couple of steps away pacing and waving her arms. "Okay, I admit it, maybe I'm not really as bad as I seem, you happy now?"

Arnold was surprised again by this and then he smiled and nodded a little. Then he walked over to her and reached out gently grabbing her upper right arm. Helga felt like she wanted to swoon right there when she felt his touch, but willed herself not to. Things were awkward enough as it was.

"Helga, you don't need to be a bully to get respect," he told her gently. "You never had to be one to get my respect."

She turned and looked at him, eyes wide and her stomach feeling as if it were full of butterflies. "I didn't?" She blinked and then asked him quietly, "You mean, I have you're respect?"

Arnold smiled and said, "Of course you do. You were great last night, Helga. It wasn't the first time I've ever seen you act nicely. You have other times, and I've always liked the person I've seen inside?"

"You did?" She sounded astonished.

He nodded and said sincerely, "Sure, Helga." He took her left hand gently then, almost without thinking about it. Indeed, it even seemed natural to do so now. "I think that you should show that side of yourself more often, and not just to me."

Now Helga blinked and her uncertainties came back to her. She shook her head and half-turned away, not letting go of his hand. "I—I don't think I can do that, Arnold." She sounded really scared now. "What if I can't do it? What if everyone makes fun of me?"

Arnold squeezed her hand slightly, but not roughly, just firmly. "I know you can do it if you try, Helga." He smiled and said, "I will be right there with you, I promise."

She looked at him, almost afraid to hope that she'd actually heard what she had. Her heart leaped into her chest. "You really mean that, Arnold?"

Arnold just smiled and nodded, "Sure I do. I know that if you just try and show a little confidence and act nicer, then everyone else would accept the Helga that doesn't bully everyone around." He then added, "I know that I would love to see more of that Helga too." Arnold felt strangely warm inside as he said those last words.

Helga suddenly felt strangely confident as Arnold said those words to her and smiled up at her. She felt her heart beating inside her chest harder and faster. All of a sudden, she felt as if she could do anything at all. She smiled and nodded sincerely to her football-headed little angel. "Okay, Arnold, I'll try and do it."

Arnold grinned and his half-lidded green eyes lit up at her words. "Really? You'll try and be nicer?"

"I guess so," Helga said shrugging and trying to sound nonchalant about the whole thing, even though there was still a nagging sense of doubt inside the back of her mind. "What have I got to lose?"

Arnold only smiled and nodded proudly.

Helga then sighed and said, "Listen, I think I better go home. A lot has happened in the last hour, and this is going to be a big change for me."

Arnold agreed with her and said, "I don't think that Mr. Simmons will mind." Then he smiled a little more and said, "Would it be okay if I walk you home?"

Helga saw him smile and felt herself turn a little bashful all of a sudden. "Oh, well sure, Arnold . . . I'd like that." She added the last part sincerely. Arnold felt his cheeks turn slightly red as he heard her last words.

As he led her out of the girl's bathroom, still holding her hand, Arnold smiled and said, "You'll see, it will all work out, I just know it will." Both of them looked at each other and smiled slightly in a shy sort-of way, feeling a whole lot better.

For now Helga forgot all about her missing locket with the inscription once again, and Arnold forgot all about their taunting classmates back in Mr. Simmons' classroom. For now all they thought about was the optimistic hope that tomorrow things would be better.

But would it?

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_Love one another and you will be happy. It's as simple and as difficult as that." -Michael Leuning _


	24. Chapter TwentyFour

"_Love makes difficult things easy and almost unworthy of note."__ -St. Thomas Aquinas_

**Chapter Twenty-Four: Surprising Realizations and an Early Arrival**

After signing them out at the office, Arnold walked Helga home, both of them not really saying too much, but just enjoying the early afternoon. The sun was out again and the weather felt perfect for swimming, or a nice game of baseball. Occasionally, both Arnold and Helga would glance at one another and then turn away and smile when they noticed the other was looking, blushes on their faces.

On the way, a few people who knew them passed them by on the streets. Among them was Harvey the mailman, who was giving some mail over to Stoop Kid, a teenage boy known for practically living on his stoop and annoying anyone who got too close to it. Harvey turned walking their way and saw the two of them. He gave them both a friendly smile, "Hey Arnold. Hey Helga. Why aren't the two of you in school?" He smirked and raised an eyebrow. "You two aren't playing hookey are you, Arnold?"

Arnold blushed a little. He didn't have to look over at Helga to know she was probably either annoyed or embarrassed, or possibly both. "No Harvey, Helga got sick in school and I'm just walking her home." It was a little white lie, but far less embarrassing than the truth would have been.

Helga smiled a little and said, "Yeah, my stomach was upset today." She put her hands over her stomach and winced a little playing along. "You know what that mystery meat the cafeteria lady serves is like."

Harvey made a face and nodded, "Yeah, I remember all too well." He shook his head and then smiled. "Well I better get going; it's going to be a hot summer this year. You two have fun, okay?"

Arnold smiled and said, "We will, Harvey. Thanks." Then he and Helga walked away toward her house.

Helga snorted as they got out of earshot of the mailman. "Can you believe him, thinking _you_, of all people, would play hookey?" She actually let out a little laugh.

Arnold blinked and looked over at her, eyebrow raised. "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh please, you're Mister-Do-The-Right-Thing. You playing hookey is like me becoming a professional ballerina." Helga said snorting.

He stopped and looked at her surprised, "You really think that I've never played hookey before?"

Helga shrugged and said, "Some kids can do things like that, heck lots of boys do all the time, but not you. You're too moral and . . . (she trailed off realizing that she was close to sounding like one of her usual romantic rants about him) W-Well, it's just not something that you'd do, that's all."

Arnold smiled a little and said, "You really think so, huh?"

"I know so, footba– um, Arnold," she said, remembering she promised to stop calling him that name, even though it was in a good natured way.

"Actually, one time me and Gerald _did_ play hookey from school." Arnold told her this, surprised to hear himself reveal something that only he and Gerald knew about.

Helga looked over at him and blinked surprised. "Huh? When was this?"

"Remember that day about four months ago when we had that surprise carnival day at school and me and Gerald were out because we were sick?"

Helga nodded and said, "Oh yeah, it just came right out of the blue." She smiled at the memory and then she looked at him surprised, "You mean you two were actually playing hookey that day?"

Arnold blushed a little and said quickly, "Well it was really Gerald's idea; I just sort of went along with it. We were bored by the routine at school and so we played hookey."

Helga raised one side of her unibrow and just looked at him strangely a moment. Then she said, "Wow, I never would have thought that_ you_ of all people would do that."

"Why? Is it so surprising that I haven't always done the right thing?" Arnold asked, looking at her face carefully as he asked that. He was a bit surprised at her reaction to his story. _Does she really think I am not capable of making mistakes?_ He asked himself. Another thought occurred also, _Wow, does she_ really _think that highly of me?_

For her part Helga just shrugged and answered, "A little, I guess." She blinked again and added, "It's just that you're usually so good at helping people with their problems and doing the right thing, I just guessed it was all second nature to you to do the same yourself." The fact of the matter was Helga was a bit stunned that Arnold, whom she'd always put on a pedestal in her mind, was just as capable of having faults—well, other than being totally dense about a certain girl's feelings.

Arnold smiled a little and said, "Nobody's perfect, Helga. I've done my share of dishonest things that I haven't always been so good."

"Oh yeah?" Helga asked surprised again but grinning a little. "Care to share some of them?"

He looked at her slightly, smiled a little, and said, "Well, there was the time I snuck into the movie theater late last year . . ."

For the rest of the way to Helga's house, Arnold told her about some of his less that noble moments, including the whole story of his and Gerald's misadventures playing hookey and the bad fortune that followed them the whole way.

Just as they were coming into sight of Helga's house, Arnold was finishing with his story about his failed crush on Lila ended two months ago when Timberly had a crush on him also and he used Gerald's little sister to get Lila's attention. He was embarrassed by the story, and rubbed the back of his neck when he told some of it, blushing a little. Yet, for some reason, he found that he could talk to Helga, who seemed to be taking all of it in with rapt attention. She never once interrupted him, he noted.

Finally Helga just looked at him, her face neutral and said, "Wow, those are pretty bad. Never guessed you'd do _those_ sorts of things, _Arnold-o_."

Arnold looked ahead a moment, suddenly a little shy about looking at her. "Like I said, I'm not perfect. I'm not proud of any of those things I've done though." He chanced a glance at Helga and—to his surprise—he saw her smiling at him.

"Well, who would have thought it," Helga said, a small twinkle in her blue eyes. "Arnold has a dark side. Wonders never cease." She shook her head, but smiled none-the-less.

It made Arnold somehow feel good to know that Helga didn't think any less of him after his stories. He was surprised to find out that his opinion of what she thought of him really did matter a great deal.

Helga was also surprised to realize that the boy she loved unconditionally all these years was just as capable of being bad as she herself was. Of course, of all the things he confessed to, none of them compared remotely to the sort-of things she had done. Arnold may not be totally perfect, but he was as moral and giving as she herself wished to be at times. She was just about to remark on this, when she suddenly heard a very unwelcome sound.

"Helga!" A female voice cried out several yards away from her front door. Helga blinked and looked up, and as quick as that, her good mood suddenly evaporated on the spot._ What the heck is she doing here today?!_ She thought to herself, the annoyance building within her.

Standing there, on top of the stoop, with the front door wide open behind her was Helga's older sister, Olga Pataki. She was tall, graceful, full-figured, and very cheerful. In other words, everything that Helga felt was not.

Olga had that familiar overly cheerful look on her face as she looked down at Helga. She walked down the stoop as Helga and Arnold walked up. "Is that really you, baby sister?" She asked grinning.

"No, it's a Campfire Lass coming to sell some chocolate covered wafers," Helga answered sarcastically, all traces of her previous good mood now gone. "Criminy, of course it's me, Olga. Doi!" She crossed her arms and her eyes at the last word. Next to her, Arnold blinked at her change in attitude.

Olga, for her part, either completely missed the sarcasm and laughed, covering her mouth with her right hand. "Oh Helga, you are simply too much." She said and then knelt down, grabbing both of her arms and kissing her on the cheek gently. Helga wiped the place off with the back of her left hand and made a face.

"Let me just look at you," Olga said giving Helga a quick appraisal, smiling the whole time. "You're growing up so fast. It's been so long, baby sister."

Helga frowned again and said, in a deadpan voice, "It's only been two months, Olga. You came home for spring break, remember?"

"Oh of course I do, silly," Olga said with a wave of her hand, brushing aside the details. She still had that bubbly smile that completely irritated Helga to no end. Then she turned her eyes and saw Arnold. "Oh hello, Arnold. It's good to see you again."

Arnold was a bit surprised that Olga remembered his name. Usually Helga's parents either got his name confused. He smiled a little and said, "It's good to see you again too, Miss Pataki."

Olga did laugh this time and she leaned over smiling more. "Oh please, just call me Olga. I mean, I'm no longer you're student teacher after all, and Miss Pataki makes me sound so old."

Those words reminded Helga of the time Olga served as assistant teacher to Mr. Simmons class back just after New Year, or so, in an insane attempt on her part to bond with her more. It was marked down in Helga's mind as one of the most humiliating and embarrassing experiences of her life, especially when Olga told the story of Helga's bed wetting problem when she was younger.

Arnold, for his part, just smiled and nodded. "Okay then, Olga it is." Olga smiled and put her hand on Arnold's shoulder gently nodding.

Helga frowned at Olga's touchy-feely behavior, and the fact she was touching _her _Arnold. She pulled Olga's hand from Arnold's shoulder by one of her fingers and coughed slightly. "Ahem, Arnold was just heading home." She turned to face him and said, "Um, thanks for walking me back home, by the way."

Arnold shrugged and replied, "It was no problem, Helga." Then he thought somehow that it wasn't quite enough and added, "I was happy to do it."

For a moment, all of Helga's good feelings suddenly flooded right back to her being. Her heart began to beat slightly faster. She had to fight not to swoon right there on the spot. _Arnold said that he was happy to walk me home! I think I could die happy right here, right now!_ Her only regret was that Arnold was about to leave.

Olga was watching the two of them and she smiled a little to herself. Then, out of the blue, Olga said, "You know, Helga, I was just about to finish helping mommy fix dinner. Maybe you'd like to invite your friend to join us?"

Helga actually went slightly wide-eyed. "Huh?!" She was totally surprised by this suggestion, feeling both very awkward, yet very hopeful all of a sudden. Olga had just given her a reason to keep Arnold around a while longer. This was perfect!

Arnold blinked also, slightly surprised by the suggestion. "Oh, um, well, thanks anyhow, Olga, but I don't want to impose."

Olga smiled and said, "Oh it's no trouble at all, I assure you. It's nothing much, just some beef bullion soup and salad, along with some dessert I was just making. You're more than welcome to join us. I'm sure that Helga would love to have the extra company."

Helga thought she was hearing things, but she could have sworn she heard a slight twinge of innuendo in Olga's last words. She looked up at her older sister, who stood there grinning like an idiot, and then looked back at Arnold a moment. She shrugged and tried to act indifferent when she asked, "Well, how about it, Arnold? You wanna stick around awhile?" Inside her mind she was pleading, _Please say yes! Please say yes! Please say yes!_

Arnold looked at Helga and thought he saw something in her eyes that wanted him to stay. He guessed that she didn't want to be around Olga alone right now. Plus, he'd been having a good time with Helga, and was amazed to realize that he did like hanging around with her, just like last night on their date. She really did look desperate too. Arnold made his decision.

He nodded and said, with a small smile on his oblong face, "Well, I guess I can stay for just a little while."

_YES! _Helga screamed in her mind, and she could not stop the corners of her mouth from moving up slightly. If it hadn't been for the fact both Arnold and Olga were standing there, she would have jumped up shouting and danced around in joy.

"Well, I better hurry up and get things ready. Make yourself at home; dinner will be in about fifteen minutes." Olga smiled and turned back into the house, moving as gracefully as always.

When Olga was inside, Helga looked over at Arnold and let out a small smile, "Thanks for sticking around, foot— um, Arnold."

Arnold smiled and nodded, noticing that she was keeping her promise to be nicer. Then he answered, "Like I said, I'm happy to do it." He smiled knowing he meant those words. He gestured to the open door like a total gentleman, "After you."

Helga again felt like swooning, but once again refrained as she led their way inside. Arnold followed closing the door behind them.

_**To Be Continued . . . . **_

"_Love can do all but raise the dead." -Emily Dickenson _


End file.
